Oroman Wars
by Pandora's-Wonderland
Summary: AU Johan's life is turned upside down. city burns,gets sold and is about to be gang raped before Judai comes. Johan, unable to leave Judai alone tags along and they live together.Events unfold and Johan spills his true dream regarding the world but then-
1. Chapter 1

**Im Back~~~~! Yes it has been awhile but I wanted to get more of the story together before I put it up.**

**Just a couple quick things before we start…**

**One I want to thank 1.) JudaiXJohan: for allowing me to write the rest of Paralyzed Love for her. She got me writing on fanfiction and I love it! Thanks so much! 3**

**2.) MistressChi08: because she has been supporting me a lot with my fanfic experience :D**

**3.) everyone who favorited or reviewed for Paralyzed Love **

**Thank you!**

**Two more things**

**Story is going to be more shounen ai with little tad bits of yaoi thrown in. Its M mostly for lang. and violence**

**In the beginning it may not seem like a Judai x johan fanfic BUT IT IS. Judai doesn't get any page time in the first chapter but just be patient :) **

**OK Here we go!**

…**Oroman Wars…**

Chapter 1- Prologue/Oroman Days

Oromanian (person living in Oroman)

Alran (person living in Alroh)

_**There was once a great nation that singly occupied the small world. **_

_**Oroman: The single super continent whose lands stretched more than half way around the small globe. Ruled by the king who lived in the Capitol. Most of Oroman was seen as prosperous and fruitful, the perfect place to live; however, there was still a large portion that remained in poverty.**_

_**This land was considered the slums of Oroman. Not really anything to be gained from a wasteland of crime and debt. **_

_**The two areas would still relate with one another. You could travel there. Live there. Visit there. They treated each other how they should, like humans.**_

_**But then… that all changed when Hurricane Sertim hit. **_

_**Thundering waves crashed and battered against the sides of the continent. Earthquakes tore at the very foundation of the land that held them together. Lightning stuck down causing wild fires to run rampant through their fruitful fields and bustling cities. The continent couldn't hold together and finally it cracked.**_

_**Three lands came out of the storms aftermath.**_

_**The everstrong Oroman. The chunk of land that held the capitol kept its name and most of the once giant continent's rich lands.**_

_**Ergo. This new land was the smallest. It resembled an island compared to the other two chunks that broke off. Since there weren't that many people they had to rule over, they formed a democracy. Their land also held the former continent's research facilities. Thus leaving Ergo the most advanced, but the most peaceful.**_

_**Lastly is Alroh. The storm couldn't have picked a better way to split these lands. All Alroh was, was the slums and a handful of fields for natural resources and food. No civility, no technology, just an overpopulated area of dumb, corrupt humans.**_

_**With Ergo and Oroman in stable conditions regarding leaders, that left Alroh. Many dictators struggled for power causing riots in the streets. For weeks on end one crazed man would be killed by another in the thirst to rule the land. It was just a matter of time before the whole area burned to the ground and sunk into the abyss of anarchy.**_

_**A new man rose. He showcased himself as prideful and composed man. He came off as withheld and thoughtful in future plans for the 'nation' and those actions collected him a variety of useful connections. Eventually those connections brought him to power and he is the current dictator of Alroh.**_

_**His goal was militarization. The only pro to Alroh was their surplus of people. Surplus of people to him meant an unlimited army. He even enacted a draft that forced any male from twenty to forty that had no stable job to join the army. Being unemployed wasn't a rare characteristic; about seventy percent of the population was unemployed!**_

_**About three years after Alroh's militarization process begun, Oroman had ordered them to stop and back down their numbers. All communications ceased between the two countries and tensions began to rise. Oromanians began to hate Alrans for being stubborn and Alrans began to hate Oromanians for their superior attitude.**_

_**Eventually Oroman declared war.**_

_**Technology for the two wasn't up to snuff. They had some iron naval ships and a few planes to spare, but these were specifically used for war affairs and not civilians. There are no cars, just trains. Homes have electricity and indoor plumbing along with natural gas.**_

_**For Alrans these home devices were very rare and once the war started, they became even more scarce. Since most of the war was fought on Alroh's soil the homes there were severally damaged.**_

_**Electricity became too much of a hassle when your house blew up or caught fire and installing a home phone was stupid because well… people didn't really have homes for more than a week. Most people resorted to handheld walkie-talkies.**_

_**The war has been going on for twelve years… twelve long years that have allowed racism to grow, violence to spread and stereotypes to form; and form between what? Two groups of people, who used to be one? They were the same and now… Why is this happening?...**_

_~Present Day Oroman – Johan~_

"The Alrans foolishly challenged us to a battle they could not win. They are continuing to deplete their natural resources and deprive their citizens of their basic needs. The almighty Oroman is currently advancing farther into their lands further and victory is in sight. Currently reporters say that this war will end with the almighty Oroman a victor in about three months." The brunette student sat down when he finished answering his question on the war.

Johan, a sixteen-year old blunette teen, lethargically stared at the student who recited the info.

"Good, now Takara-kun can you tell me why the Alrans were foolish to challenge Oroman?" The teacher questioned, readjusting her small glasses to fit her mouse-like nose.

The student stood up and recited, "Our almighty nation is far superior to the other because of our stable economy and holy ruler, King Godrick. Their barbaric style of a dictatorship has gotten them no profit in their economy. Our society functions gracefully with its citizens, ensuring that the utmost can be produced from our people." The student sat down. The teacher was asking questions at the end of class; she called this rapid fire. The student would have to stand up and answer the question.

"_Why does every answer seem to glorify Oroman?" _Johan thought. He sighed and laid his head down on the desk with his forearm keeping his cheek from touching the fake wood of the desktop. _"Why does everyone forget that we came from the same continent?" _Johan sighed again.

His convenient seat next to the window allowed him to gaze at the endless blue sky that stretched over Oroman. There was always a stray bird he could find twirling around in the sky. He would follow it with his emerald orbs until the teacher would call on him… and then reprimand him for not paying attention.

"Those dumbasses don't know when to quit do they!" One of the students yelled having the whole class begin to erupt in to a fit of laughter. Well everyone but Johan.

Before the teacher has a chance to settle her class down the bell rings over the intercom and all the students get up out of their seats and rush out of the room.

School is over. Johan perked up when it rung. He got his binder and textbooks into his bag then rushed out of the room like every other kid. He made his way down the hallway, nervously glancing in every direction he could see. He began ducking and weaving cautiously through a large crowd of students near the exit.

Finally he was outside. He trotted over to where the school's exit gate was and checked over his shoulder. No one was there.

"_Ha! I win today fool!" _He snickered to himself. He stuck his tongue out in the direction of the school and began to walk down the sidewalk.

Johan was headed to his usual place he went after school. Neos Café. There was always a quite place available for people to study and Johan never favored the idea of studying at home… well for that matter, he never did anything at home besides sleep. He always found ways of doing everything outside or in another building.

He pushed open the door and heard the same bell chime he heard everyday he entered. He walked in about three steps then rounded the corner of a white walkway to go into the area to study.

"_3,2,1…" _Johan mentally counted.

"Welcome to Neos Café- Oh hi Johan!" The chipper waitress, clad in her red-checkered uniform with her white top and frilly skirt, always greeted him the same way at the same time he walked in.

"Hi Rena-san." Johan gave his usual smile and made a way to his usual seat. The small round table had a tonal red tablecloth on it with a small sunflower in a crystal clear vase placed in the center.

The whole café was just cozy. The walls had white wood covering them till halfway through then it turned to brick the rest of the way up with white trim rounding the bottom of the floor and top of the ceiling.

The elongated windows had pale yellow curtains that draped to the sides of them, all the way to the windowsill. Other tables were spread out over the caramel wood floor. Some had the same red table clothes while others had a hushed dark blue. The chairs were the same color as the floor with cushions that matched the tablecloth.

On the far side of Johan was a bar- family friendly bar- that had different pastries available to buy. There was also a T.V. with the news playing.

Not many people were here today so it was fairly quiet.

"_Perfect. Now I can actually get something done." _Johan breathed in the fresh bakery smell, sat quietly for a second then perked up. He unzipped his backpack and pulled out his first binder.

Calculus. His homework was solving a few derivatives and integrals. Not too hard. Johan had always been one of the smartest kids in school. I guess he was just born with an inhumanly intelligent brain because he never had to study. Ever.

All he had to do was see it once and poof! He knew how to solve it.

Although he might have been an A student in school… it most certainly didn't apply to P.E.

Dear god this boy couldn't even do a pull up. He had zero upper body strength; although, he could manage a decent sprint. He was faster than a majority of his class.

The blunette was lifted out of his concentration when his ears caught the sound of the news being turned up. He brought his eye level and on the other end of the bar he saw an old man with the clicker and a stern gaze focusing on the T.V. He had a buzz cut and his gray mustache was in a clean rectangle spread across his face.

"_Military official." _Johan scoffed. He didn't take any liking to anything related to the war. The blunette was a very peaceful person, doesn't like violence very much… probably cause he couldn't win if he resorted to it.

"Reports are saying that Major General Garam has broken the first line in sector 12 of Alroh and has recaptured sector 11 and the battle on the north east front reports that they are advancing greatly. Now lets take a look at the weather with Tom."

Johan drowned out the rest of the conversation. Instead he looked over at the middle-aged man. His brow furrowed in concentration or was it anger? One of his fists was balled up and was being tightly pressed to his knee. His line of vision was in the direction of the T.V. but he didn't seem to be watching it anymore.

"_Well doesn't seem the news lady got that report right." _Johan almost chuckled to himself from the look of the man. He got up and went over to order something from the bar.

"Can I have a water please?" Johan asked. He pulled out his wallet and took out a dollar and some change. He stole one last glance at the man and he could swear he saw a glint of worry in his eye before the man turned back around and paid for his beverage.

"_What the…" _The blunette stood there staring at the man as he took his olive green coat and made way for the door. The teen turned to his water and stared down at it, worry coming to show on his face as well.

"_That was a military jacket, I'm sure of it…" _Johan bit down on his pink lips and furrowed his brow. _"What's really happening in the war?"_

He mentally shook himself and grabbed his cup of water. He turned around and before he could walk back to his seat the ice water was slapped up at his face, ice hitting his face and the remaining water that didn't stick to his clothes fell and splashed his feet.

For a second he stood there dumbfounded then he realized who it was. Jack.

"Hey fag! Thought you missed us at school didn't you?" Jack, his senior in school, he was about eighteen. He had blonde hair that spiked upward and he loved to bully Johan.

"Jack." Johan stated, trying to compose himself so the blonde wouldn't feel the satisfaction of his prank.

This bastard has been picking on Johan ever since he confessed to his friend Yusei. It was when Johan was a freshman. Yusei and him had been friends since the start of middle school. Yusei had wild raven hair and cobalt eyes. He was smart like Johan but also had a badass side. He had a yellow stripe tattoo on his face and he was in a band called Satisfaction.

The two of them were best friends… well until Johan wanted to be more than that.

~ Flash back~

"Oi Johan!"_ The ravenette began to trot over to his friend when he saw him. Johan flushed a light shade of pink when he saw his crush gleefully smiling after calling his name._

_Johan was gonna do it. He was gonna confess to Yusei today. _

"Hey! You got my message!" _Johan waved back hoping the noticeable blush was gone from his cheeks. _

"What do ya need?"_ Yusei asked, completely un aware of what was coming. _

"Uh yeah… but can we go somewhere private?" _Yusei quirked his head to the side in confusion. "Kawaii~!" Johan crooned in his mind._

"Yeah sure… where to?"

"Uh over here." _Johan lead Yusei over behind the school back where the baseball fields and the dugouts were. _

"_Oh my god~! I'm actually holding his hand~!" Johan squealed like a girl, mentally that is. He peered inside one of the dusty dugouts and saw that no one was there. He motioned fro Yusei to sit down on one then, he sat beside him._

_Johan nervously gazed at the ground taking in a number of exaggerated breaths. Was he trying to calm himself or get himself more worked up?_

"You okay there?" _Yusei asked arching one of his eyebrows and leaning over to make eye contact with the spazmatic blunette. Johan shot up and took Yusei's hands in his._

"W-we've known each other since high school and… and we are always hanging out and we've become good friends but… I… am starting to feel… different feelings when I'm around you…" _Johan glanced over to Yusei but he wasn't showing any signs that he could tell Johan was confessing his love._

"I… I like you." Johan rushed the words out of mouth so fast you could barely call it speaking.

"What?" _Yusei shifted uncomfortably and looked at Johan for something else._

"I like you… a lot and I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime?" _Johan was actually able to speak normally this time! He even felt giddy, knowing that he had gotten this feeling off his chest and Yusei might actually accept him._

"Hahahahahaha!" _Yusei began… laughing? Johan turned beat red and lowered his head from feeling the damaging blow to his heart. He didn't even reject him properly… he laughed._

"You're joking right?" _Yusei asked. _

"_He thinks it's a joke?..." Johan thought. _"I-I'm being serious…" _Johan brought his head back up to meet Yusei's cobalt eyes. He had to show him he wasn't joking._

_The ravenette teen gave Johan a playful smile that said 'yeah right'. Johan grinded his teeth together and mustered up his courage for something that was bold._

_He released his hold on the other teen's hand and brought his hand up, behind_ _Yusei's raven hair and held it. He gently but quickly guided his lips onto Yusei's and gave him a kiss._

_To the blunette it seemed like the kiss lasted an eternity but really… it was only a few seconds before Yusei ripped himself away from him. The ravenette was on his feet and disgustedly backing away from the blunette._

_He didn't say anything. All he did was wipe at his lips and run away. That was probably ten times worse than being rejected._

_The worst part about it is that he told his best friend, Jack, and now Jack loves to tease, prank and beat the living hell out of Johan._

Present Day Oroman – Café ~

"You walking away from me fag?" Jack teased. He followed Johan back to his table and sat across in the other chair. "Aww~ the silent treatment approach this time?"

"Please just drop this already Jack, it's been more than a year." Johan reasoned as he hastily slipped his books back into his backpack. Jack beat Johan in picking up his last book. The blonde wave the book in the air examining it like he didn't know what it was.

"Please give me my book back." Johan asked in a regular tone. He held out his palm and stared at the teen.

"Or what you gonna kiss me too?" Jack smirked when he saw the blunette get pissed off and it was mixed with some embarrassment by the combination of a glare and blush surfacing on Johan's face.

"Homophobe." Johan muttered under his breath, tilting his head away from Jack to make the comment even harder to hear. Jack's smirked vanished and he brought the textbook hard down onto Johan's head.

"OW!" Johan growled quickly wrapping his hands around the soon-to-be red lump on his head.

"See you round faggot." Scoffed the blonde. He stood up quickly, forcing the chair to the ground behind him. He dropped the textbook on the floor and kicked it aside leaving the café with a humph.

"_God damn! That hurt like hell!" _Johan mentally screamed, still rubbing his sore spot. The day Jack stops being a homophobe is the day the war ends!

Rena, the waitress, brought the blunette a cold bag of peas for his head and let him take it home with him.

…

Home

…

To Johan… there wasn't really a place he wanted to call home any more.

Both of his parents died. More specifically, they died because of the war. His mother was a war nurse; although, she didn't do a lot of nursing… more like amputations and such. She was transferred to one of the camps near the front line and their station was ambushed.

Her death notice came in the form of a small pale yellow note, no bigger than the size of a post it. It was like what she did didn't matter and they were sending a note saying 'we thank your mother for her participation but… oh wait we cant she dead sorry'

Then to top it all off, his dad wasn't there with him when he got the somber note. He was off fighting in the war. He was a simple warrant officer, killed in the line of duty. With his death at least someone cared. An old solider friend came and personally told Johan… well with what little words Johan could make out between all the sobbing and hiccups. He let the poor man cry it out, not shedding a single tear in front of him… but when he got in the house the curtains came down and Johan all but lost himself in his tears and wails of pain.

Now he feels empty when he thinks about his parents. Like he has cried out all of his tears and there are none left to shed for them… sad right?

That's why Johan never favors staying home very long… it reminds him too much of the past. Most of the time the house stay empty, with the exception of the occasional visit of the housekeeper who comes by as a favor to Johan. She used to be there maid because the house is three stories of hugeness, but since the death of Mr. and Mrs. Anderson she feels as though she should do something for Johan.

The blunette slipped on a pair of black, baggy sweats and grabbed a cool drink then went outside on the balcony. He rested his arms over top of one another, holding the drink off to the side, and leaned his weight against the railing. It was getting dark out. In the distance you could see some city lights starting to click on, along with the other stores signs shining brightly.

The blunette drank his cola, enjoying the refreshing sensation washing over his dry throat. He lowered the drink back down onto the railing and continued to gaze out at the pool of ever growing lights. If Johan ever had to be home, then most of his time was spent looking away from that house and its contents.

Life just seemed to keep flowing for the blunette, but the flow was repetitive. Everyday he would wake up, get dressed with no complaints of how early it was, eat breakfast- the usual toaster waffles or cereal- and then go to school. There were no more eventful things happening to him. His life was empty.

The blunette sighed again, gazing longingly at the open sky.

"_Someone's gotta change this… I don't want anyone to be like me… be empty…"_

Another sigh escaped his lips. He lowered his head to take another sip but stopped and blankly stared down at the greenery below; it wasn't a depressed stare but one of realization.

"…_Can I really do it? … can I change it?..." _Johan's lips widened in excitement at his thoughts and he chuckled a little at how giddy he was getting. The blunette was having one of his random burst of optimisticness. They happened quite often when he felt he was getting himself down too much. He would rise up, all gung-ho ready to face the world and then simmer down about a week later when all the events began to tax on him.

The blunette gulped down the rest of his cola with vigor and when the last mouthful was swallowed he let out a exaggerated breath of air. He stretched his hands up over his head, clasped them together and leaned left then right.

"Yosh!" Johan clapped his hands together and put on a grin before he went back into the house to finish his homework.

~ Next Day Oroman~

Johan's morning routine was the same but this time he had a goofy grin plastered on his face the whole time and the whole time he was humming an annoying cat food commercial jingle. He actually made a big breakfast from his newfound enthusiasm; one that consisted of eggs, bacon, scratch-made waffles and cut up fruit. Once he was done with eating he downed his orange juice in one swig and piled the plates in the sink. He ran over to the door to put his shoes on but glanced back at the dirty sink.

He stared irritably at it for a minute before his OCD attitude kicked in. He kicked his shoes back off and shuffled over to the sink to wash the dishes.

"Stupid OCDness…" Johan muttered to himself as he carefully washed each dish and placed on the drying wrack. He took in one last glance at the kitchen, spotless. He nodded his head and ran back to the door.

With shoes on and backpack all set he started his walk to school. He didn't live too far, it was at least a fifteen twenty minute walk depending on how many people were on the streets.

The blunette had his walk down to memory. He could walk this route with his eyes closed and back. He went straight down his neighborhood walkway before he took a left onto the bustling market streets. The markets varied from the usual buildings that occupied the street to tents people set up to make a quick buck. Most of the permanent buildings were stores like restaurants or grocery stores with the occasional clothing store. The colorful tarp line tents was where you found you're products that were… out there.

You could find anything from done-up gadgety bikes to plain old shoes laces. There were jewel vendors and some people were street performers.

Johan was entering his final stretch to get to school. It was a greenway lined with trees and flowerbeds alternating in colors of a royal blue, purple and yellow. Oroman's flag colors. The beds were fenced off with metallic lacey wire and the mulch was always fresh with a lush chocolate color.

The air was always fresh and had a lovely nectar smell that accompanied it. The grass was always green and trimmed down to a short bristly size. Everything perfect. That's the way Oroman was. Perfect.

The blunette's school was perched a top a low-lying hill, the sports fields were the first thing Johan always passed. He walked around the baseball diamond and frowned slightly when he saw the same dugout that he confessed in. Damn did it hurt every time he saw it. He could just picture the scene before him. The image of Yusei's face will be forever burned in his mind. The two haven't talked much since that day, just a 'hello' or a quick question with homework.

Johan reached the schools entrance gates, quickly looked around for Jack and snuck into homeroom before he could find him.

It was about five minutes before school started when Johan walked in. He would have been earlier if he didn't take out seven extra minutes to clean the dishes. He weaved in and out of the desks that were in lines going from the front of the room to the back. He shrugged off his backpack next to his window seat and straddled his seat with one leg on either side because the damn seat was attached to the desk with a metal rod and that metal rod happened to be on the opposite side of the window, the side Johan approached his seat from.

The teen rested his head on the desk and faced the rest of his classmates starting to mass. Every one was chatting and smiling, greeting each other with the same comments of 'good morning' and 'how are you' then responding with 'I'm good, how bout you?'. Then the other would reply ' I'm doing good.' Then they two would walk to their seats and wait for other fake conversations to come their way.

Johan lifted his back from its slump when he saw Yusei enter the room. He was talking with a red head named Crow. The two parted ways at the front of the class where Crow sat; Yusei sat two seats behind Johan and always had to pass him.

"_Oh god here comes the awkward moment!" _Johan sat up and made eye contact with Yusei but then decided against it. Maybe it would make him seem too desperate to say 'hi', but then was that a bad thing? He made eye contact again. Oh god he's closer now.

"_Here it comes!"_ Johan held his breath to gain his courage then let out his awkward "Hey Yusei." The raven teen gave him a quick smile and said, "Hey" in a normal voice keeping his pace to his seat.

"_Oh god that was awkward as hell! I fucked it up again! #$&*!"_ Johan slumped back down to his desk feeling defeated and it was still morning! The blunette teen made a sarcastic dying face with his face to his desk to hide it, then sat back up. He looked up at the clock.

"_Two more minutes."_ Johan watched the large, black hand tick across the black lines but it was going too slow. Sitting in silence was always… just well… no one liked it. They sat there fidgeting uncomfortably looking for something to look at while trying not to look desperate or stupid. He shifted to the side to look at the window, he saw his reflection and cocked his head from side to side looking at how his hair swayed on his shoulders.

"_Geez its so long~ I need to cut it badly." _He took his teal locks into his hand and twirled it around his finger and pinned in up to the back of his head.

"_I definitely need to cut it. I look like a girl_." Johan grimaced at his girly reflection. This was not good for his manly pride.

Ding Dong Ding Dong

The morning bell chimed at that signified to stand for the Oroman pledge.

"All students rise." Everyone in the room stood and placed their right hand over their heart and their left hand in the air next to their ear.

"I pledge allegiance to the holy Empire of Oroman."

"_Today is gonna be different… I can feel it. Even if I did fuck it up again with Yusei."_

"From the storm that created us. To the great king who lead us."

"_I want to change things… get out of this boring routine. Start a new chapter in my life."_

"Creating all of Oroman's greatness. We shall fight to protect, serve and honor…"

"_I will definitely bring change."_

"For our Almighty Oroman." All the students sat down ready to start their Oroman day… but this one wouldn't be the same because in the distance a series of bombs began going off.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Oh hohoho! Yeah! I finished. But not gonna put it up till I have Judai in the story. ^^**

**Yusei is gonna be a little OOC but he is only gonna be here for 2 chaps so… yeah^^! **

**But when it is up… I hope everyone loves it!**

**Preview**

**What is going on in the peaceful city of Oroman? Did it have anything to do with the worried military general?**

**Whats going to happen with Johan? And will he be able to fulfill his claim to bring change?**

**What happens when Johan gets a little more change then he bargained for? And will new faces be with him or against him?**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Fight

Tremors echoed through the school building. Light were giving way and then fighting to stay back on, only creating a more panicky atmosphere for the screaming students. The students who actually had half a level head were looking around for any signs of the building collapsing then making a break for the door to save their own skin.

Johan was in temporary shock from the sight he was seeing outside when another wave of bombs rippled through their once peaceful city. This wave was closer to the school and the reverberations from the saturation bombing shattered the windows, erupting screams from more frightened students.

Mass panic was taking its full effect now that the students mind had grasped around the fact that Oroman was being attacked. Many of them ran out of the class, their first thought their brain produced was to get out the building before it collapsed. Johan's first thoughts were a little more selfless… and stupidly heroic.

"Yusei!" Johan got up off the ground and ran over to the one person his whole body was screaming to protect. The ravenette was still dumbfounded and frozen on the floor when Johan shook him from his unresponsive state.

"Yusei! We need to go!" He was trying to pull the teen off the floor before both of them got trampled like other students around them. Yusei still hadn't snapped out of the temporary shock and was still not moving. Johan grit his teeth but it didn't matter if he was saying anything now, they needed to get out now!

"Come on!" Johan yelled and dragged Yusei towards the door. They were practically the last ones out. The hallway was packed to the gills with panic-stricken students pushing each other out of the way to save themselves. It kinda sucked to be a third year because they organized their students by floors. Just great. Now the blunette had to get an unresponsive person out of a collapsing building from the third floor while trying to not get trampled by the raving sea of students.

The blunette cut in through a science room and went in the teacher's lounge that connected to it. There was another staircase connected at the end of the hall and Johan only had to pass through one more door to get there. He opened the door from inside the teachers lounge and was met with an elbow to the face by a screaming teen. He stumbled back a few steps covering the new red mark on his face with his free hand.

Through the doorframe, on the floor of the hall he could see a small boy caught under the feet of all the people trying to escape. He let go of Yusei and sat him down against the wall of the tiled floor. He did a double take just to be sure that he was okay and went to pry the kid out of the stampede.

First he stuck out his arms, hoping to direct the flow away from him, but he was still jostled by a few people. He bent down halfway still making himself visible to on coming people and pulled the boy off of the ground. He had blood dripping off the side of his hairline and the top of his red head of hair was sticky with blood. Johan wrapped his arms securely around the teen and made way for the empty teachers' lounge. He set the unconscious boy next to the unresponsive one and stared at them for a second thinking, _"How am I going to get them out of here?" _

Another bomb wave causes the lights to die and a unanimous scream echoes through the halls of their floor.

Its do or die now. Johan lifts the newly acquired member of their escape party onto his back and takes Yusei's hand once again. More than half of the students were knocked to the floor from the tremors and it cleared more of a path to exit.

"Excuse me, watch out! Oh I'm sorry… excuse me." Johan was apologizing to every person he bumped into and then some. Eventually he got down to the spiral staircase and the three of them made it to the bottom floor. He searched through the crowded lobby area, thickening with smoke looking for something, but what was that something… they needed to get somewhere safe.

"Jack!" Yusei cried out. He caught sight of the blonde upper classman making his way from the stairs. The ravenette bolted, leaving Johan's hand and side in a heartbeat. Johan's heart sank… no that's an understatement his heart fell out of his chest and Yusei trampled over it without thinking as he left him.

"Y-yusei!" Johan ran after the ravenette, even though Yusei didn't pay any mind to the blunette he still wanted to make sure he was safe.

…

Safe…

!

"Yusei! Jack!" He ran towards Yusei and Jack with a new plan in mind. _"My dad's made a safe house! Why didn't I think about it before? He built it just before he was shipped to the front lines as a precaution for me."_

"What faggot!" Jack barked at the blunette with a scowl.

"My house has a safe bunker we can hide in till this passes. Its not that far and I think we can make it." Johan explained as he readjusted the boy on his back, this received puzzling looks.

"That's a freshman right… I think his name is Rally." Jack said he went around and looked at the boys face. His red hair looked matted and a little poofy from the way it was now.

"Drop him off at the nurses we need to get to that safe house." Jack told him and turned around back to Yusei.

"We are not just gonna leave him! I don't even think the nurse is even still here!" Johan protested, throwing his whole body forward to get Jack's attention.

"He is dead weight! Leave him!" Jack fought back, now turning around to start a full on argument with the blunette.

"Would you want us to leave you if you were out cold like him!" Johan argued stepping forward and getting in Jack's face.

"… You are gonna carry him, and don't come crying to me when your weak sorry ass is tired!" Jack turned back around and made way for the door.

"Hey wait we need to stick to…ge.. therr-" Johan's eyes dilated at the horrifying sight that was unraveling on the streets.

Black plumes of smoke covered every inch of clean breathable air. Buildings were on fire along with flaming people rolling on the ground crying and screaming at the top of their lungs for help. Not help from people but God, hoping that if they pray with all their might these last seconds they may have an easier death and go to heaven. Gravel was strewn over the once perfectly paved streets. But the worst were the ungodly amount of Alroh soldiers storming their city. They were blowing up buildings, shooting some people and taking others down for them to be caged someplace else.

The only thing that brought Johan back to the here and now was the insides of his mouth watering and his stomach forcing back up the breakfast he had this morning. He was on his knees; hurling and gasping for air between throw up episodes from the sickening sight. Rally's weight on his back made it hard for him to stay up so he set him aside for a moment.

Another few bombs go off and throw all of the teens to the ground. They all covered their heads with their hands like they were taught in those outdated info-videos they played in school.

"Get it together faggot you are the one leading us!" Jack ripped Johan from the ground and slapped him to bring back his sanity. "Get it together!" Jack was just as scared as everyone else. If Johan didn't lead they were all screwed.

"_E-everyone's counting on me… come on Johan!" _The blunette pushed himself away from Jack and went over to Rally and placed him back in his original position.

"We can do this lets go!" Johan took off running down the greenway, which was now half on fire half grey looking from all the smoke. There wasn't any more conversation, just ragged breaths trying to take in any air that didn't choke them.

Johan's lungs were on fire along with his eyes watering and nose itching. _"God I am gonna puke again!" _Johan wrenched his eyes shut to cope with the same mouth watering sensation you get before you throw up and the churning of his stomach.

Too late. He found a close by tree and leaned all his weight on it, puking out even more of his inner fluids. There was no more breakfast just grey putrid stomach acid burning his esophagus even more than the smoke.

"Johan!" Yusei ran beside the blunette and put a hand on his back comforting him while his lapse of pain passed.

"Y-yus-sei…" Johan panted. He cleared his throat and stood back up. _"Yusei still believes in you. He is actually touching you again. Keep it together."_

"C-come on." Johan broke back into a jog run again, staying close to Yusei with jack a couple of feet behind.

They were just exiting the forest when another obstacle struck them. The soldiers. There were four soldiers, clad in a black and red army jumpers with black packs strapped on their belts and backs.

The first one surprise tackled Yusei to the ground. The two rolled down the small hill in a punch war. Johan was about to take off to help Yusei until he was tackled to the ground by one of them. The man brought him down to the side at a full on sprint, Rally rolled off the side and laid there limp. One of the last two soldiers went after the first one that rolled down the hill and the second went for Jack.

Johan was placed in a tight grasp and any struggling he did just wore him out. "Damn it let me go!" He began wriggling again but the soldier's strength was beyond anything Johan could handle. Fear started setting in and Johan began to panic and scream. Before the man could freak the blunette out anymore he was thrown back off of him.

The blunette hesitantly rolled over, tears on the edge of his cheeks but luckily he found Jack beating on the man.

"Jack!" Johan called. The blonde finished off the black man and went for Yusei. He skidded down the hill and dove into the first guy backing up the one on top of Yusei.

"Johan! Get the other one!" Jack ordered as he took care of the first guy. Johan tripped getting up and stumbled down the hill. He ripped the black soldier off of Yusei when one of his hands left the ravenette. He went for a punch but was easily dodged and the soldier countered with kneeing Johan in the stomach and forcing him to the ground. Before he could deal another blow to Johan, Yusei tripped him and kicked him in the stomach and then knocked him out with a hard left elbow to the face.

"Y-you okay?" Yusei was panting and limping just a little but he still held out a hand to Johan.

"Y-yeah thanks." He took the hand and pulled himself up. Jack came over to their group and bent over regaining his breath, balancing his two hands and weight on his kneecaps.

"Where's the kid?" Jack panted. Johan gasped and ran back up the small slope. He found the little red head freshman slowly getting up holding his head and then doubling over and falling on his belly.

"Hey! Don't move so quick!" Johan yelled. He trotted over to him and bent down holding him up straight. "How is your head? Can you stand up?"

"Johan we have to go." Jack came over and scowled at the freshman, he was slowing down their process of getting to a safer place.

"Jack shut up and chill a sec!" Johan barked back paying no attention to the blonde but the freshman's freshly opened head wound.

"You… helped me… off the floor that time…" Rally recollected very slowly.

"Freshman! Get up now and run or we are gonna leave you behind!" Jack yelled and then yanked Johan up off the ground and then shoved him forward.

"Jack stop! … Can you walk?" Johan bent down in front of the little teen and gave a soft smile.

"He is gonna do more than walk! We are running!" Jack yelled again. Before Johan could reprimand Jack again he saw Rally's face contort in fear. He finally saw it… the burning Oroman.

"What's happening!" Rally cried. His body developed its own little tremors as he continued to take in the sight.

"HEY!" Johan shook the poor boy and made eye contact. "We are going to be fine! We are making our way to a safe house so we need to move! Don't worry!"

"Optimist." Jack scoffed in a barely audible voice. Johan lifted Rally up but soon after his legs buckled out from underneath him, his head swirling and turning his vision into a kaleidoscope.

"Rally!" Johan broke his fall by grabbing his shirt and slowly lowering him to the ground.

"Shit…that hurt." Rally raked his fingers through his head, not caring about the dried blood he clumped under his fingernails.

"Just leave me-oowhoa!" Rally was lifted up onto Johan's back once again and the three had already begun running before he could say, "What are you doing! I am heavy!"

"This faggot is the one who loves you so much to keep you so he's gonna carry you!" Jack called out and even laughed when he saw Rally blush.

"I don't love him! And would you drop the faggot thing already!" Johan's arguing would have been more effective but… he was scarlet red and making a weird face.

"Just keep running faggot!" Jack laughed.

The group was clear of the greenway and was rounding the corner to go into the market when-

BOOM!

The building they rounded exploded and sent all of them flying at least fifteen or twenty feet. The rubble flew in all directions and the remainder of the house was left with a small fire ignited on the wood planks.

Johan's eyes fluttered open and when he attempted to look around he saw halos o light around every object and his ears were ringing out loudly and in an annoying frequency. He swallowed and found a few pieces of gritty rock stuck to his tongue and teeth. He could feel the chalky earth below him rumbling. He lethargically moved his eyes to look over at Rally who was struggling to get up. Then he saw that same fear stricken face as before and shifted his body to see what it was.

"GAAAHHH! DAMN IT!" Jack screamed as his body curled over and his arms gripped tightly around his leg. Only thing is there was a foot long iron rod stuck through his lower thigh.

"J~uack!" Johan slurred his words as he dragged himself over to what he thought was Jack's body. When he placed his hand on it he felt a sticky goop coat his hands and when his eyes focused more he saw the color. Red. His blurred disoriented vision straightened out and he found himself pawing at the upper half of the café waitress Rena. The bottom half was profusely spewing blood to no end and you could see her intestines sprawled out; her eyes white from rolling back into her head.

Once again Johan lost himself to his stomach and he upchucked what ever was left in his system. His eye pupils contracted and her shook while gaping for air and losing his fluids again.

Yusei was slowly recovering as well but nothing too serious and he crawled over to help Johan.

"J-joh… haaan." Yusei panted half coughed pulling Johan out of his traumatized state. There were tears dancing on the tops of his cheeks that spilled down when he looked away from the decapitated form.

"Damn it! ARGH pull it out or something!" Jack cried as he rolled onto his other side to ease the pain. Yusei helped Johan up and they went over to Jack.

"Pull it out! Argh! I am gonna die!" Jack withered in pain and attempted to look at something other than the rod shooting through his leg… but there really wasn't much to look at.

"I am not a doctor! What if I am not supposed to pull it out!" Johan retorted.

"JUST DO IT!" Jack ordered before gritting his teeth and muffling another scream. The blunette hesitantly gripped the rod with one hand and his thigh in the other.

"3… 2…1-" Johan yanked the blood covered rod out from his body and tossed it to the side, slinging blood across the broken cement, while Jack screamed in agony again.

This time it was Yusei was hurled. It was a combination of the choking smoke, being thrown back from the explosion and finally the blood spewing from Jacks leg. Johan just stared horridly at the leg wound.

Rally was the one who actually did something. He ripped his shirt at the bottom; the rip was sloppy and went halfway up his side but it still worked.

He covered the hole and wrapped the rest above the leg hopefully to stop the blood. "Why? I was the one to say to leave-"

"We are all gonna help each other get out of this." Johan interjected. He helped Jack up to Yusei's shoulder and the pulled Rally up onto his back.

"Lets go!" Johan started off on a slow trot, keeping pace with limping Jack and Yusei. Their feeble charade of running was halted again when they ran into a large ten-man squad of soldiers. They hid behind a wall before they were spotted and caught their breath.

"What now? Every other way is blocked off with fire or soldiers and this is the only way what, what are we-!"

"Yusei calm down! We will think of something!" Johan half shouted, still keeping quiet.

Johan looked at everyone. Rally could barely walk. Jack… can't walk by himself and then there is Yusei. But then there is him. He could lead them away, he was faster than Yusei and he could still run.

"Yusei, when you get to my house you go down to the basement and you just keep going straight until you reach a metal door. The code is 3407 okay, 3407." Johan had the ravenette by the shoulders and was staring him in the eyes.

"St-stop… I cant and-"

"Yusei stop. I am the one with the best chance of leading them away, and you know that." Johan turned to Jack and told him, "Jack, get them to the safe house. Yusei knows how to get there and the code is 3407. Get everyone there safe." Johan gave a look of confidence to Jack, wavered a little by looking over at the soldiers then, smiled back at Jack.

"Johan…"

"Johan don't! Please-" Yusei begged by holding onto his arm, hoping maybe he would change his mind.

"Stop… I want you to be safe too… to me, that's all that matters." With out further explanation and excuses Johan took Yusei's head in his hands and brought his lips together with his for one last kiss. He pulled back gracing his- possible-last moments with one last look at his crush's face.

It wasn't what his heart needed.

The ravenette hesitantly wiped his lips with the back of his hand, slow trying to make his movements seem unnoticeable. His cobalt eyes darted down to the rubble ground that suddenly became more important than the last moments with his friend.

"I'm sorry." The words left his lips hushed, his throat was still getting itself, and the rising sadness in his heart, under control. He took off.

It didn't take too many rocks to be thrown before the whole battalion of men was chasing after Johan.

"_Okay maybe that was a little much." _Johan sweat dropped when he thought about how many rocks made contact with the soldiers' faces.

The blunette rounded the corner, half way slipping on bits of gravel rolling under his shoes, but he still caught himself and kept running. A quick glance behind him got a quick head count of more than five, that was good… but it didn't quite look like ten. The blunette teen rounded another corner but was taken out by an oncoming force from the opposite side of the block. The men had split into two teams and cut him off before he got away.

"Not so cheeky now brat!" The soldier who tackled him to the ground gave him a solid punch to the jaw, from his position atop him. Great now there were two bruises going to be on horridly present on his face. One from the elbow to the face and two was now.

Johan squirmed wildly, thrashing every part of his body functional to get out from underneath him but to no avail then he was lifted up by his long hair a-good three feet off the ground.

"Look, I can't even tell if **it's a** boy or a girl." One of the men taunted. He threw Johan back down to the ground, causing his back to slam to the ground on a few sharp rocks. The soldier brought down his black combat boot on top of Johan's crotch to gruesomely confirm which gender he was.

The poor teen let out a sharp cry of pain and tried to shift his torso around under the man's harsh grind. "Aww~ **it's **a boy. Do we still bring him there?" The soldier crushing Johan's manhood rotated his head, casually asking his question to what seemed to be the leader of their group.

"Doesn't matter what gender **it **is, people will still pay money for **it**. Take **it**." With that said the leader turned away. Johan's torture was ended, his lower area too painful to turn his body on his side, but as if fate wanted to torture Johan he was kicked onto his belly, applying more pressure to the area that desperately needed a bag of peas- and maybe a medic team in Johan's mind. His hands yanked and pinned behind his back and forced into an inch-thick zip tie that grinded roughly against his skin.

His face was lifted from being shoved into the dirt and next thing he knew he was lifted onto the shoulder of one of the men and being taken away from whatever spot in Oroman he was now… He couldn't even tell now… everything looked…

He lashed out and screamed the whole way, kicking his feet till they were held down and making his throat hoarse and dry, until he was thrown in a large crate with other Oromanians. He didn't have the strength to move up from the painful blow he had received in the past couple of hours, but his mind was still churning out the idea of GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!

The blunette looked up as he saw his last ray of light from this horrid day getting slimmer until it was completely gone.

**Okay just reread acouple of this chapter and I changed soooooo many 'form' to 'from' so if you encounter any 'form' … its probably 'from'**


	3. Chapter 3

**I swear Judai is coming just be patient! No torches please! Like at the end of this chap… yeah ^^… … … :3 patient plz**

Chapter 3 – Good as Dead

The darkness of the crate didn't last long. When everyone's eyes hit the harsh light they saw the air still clogged and tainted with smog and every building in sight was now rubble.

Johan was drained, mentally and physically. The ongoing sound of sobs that even now are still lingering in his ears continued to moan like a broken record player. His eyes had bags but the color inside his iris was still burning with the determination to get free. New movement in those eyes sparked to life, flickering left and right assessing his new situation.

All of the people he was with were in a vertical line leading up to a two men, one in a military uniform- high rank from all the pins and badges and the leather cap- and a man nicely dressed in a white collar shirt.

White collar was eyeing and touching about every person who came up to him with the exception of young children and the old bags who had wrinkles on their wrinkles.

At the end of the line came the split, as Johan called it. White collar's decision had an effect of who went where and so far there weren't enough people to tell what pattern was going on.

Johan was basically the end of the line with the exception of a husky looking brunet behind him about 25 or so. Halfway through the line another high ranked military officer took a lap down and examined-glared- at the rest of their loot. He stood next to Johan and raised a hand to White collar. The man then turned around and directed four of the five groups into a larger one. Men surrounded the group.

"_That's different… ordinary- ! … gun… man…" _Johan didn't wait for more of his thoughts to form_. "Children and elderly." _

"NO STOP!" Johan's hoarse voice mustered all it could, but wasn't heard over the round of gunshots being fired.

All the bodies dropped to the ground. Dead.

The Oromanians left in the line and the last group panicked, scattering like ants to flee but all order returned when more gunshots fired to the air.

"GET BACK IN LINE!" The gun-holding officer commanded. The previous ordinary gunman herded the line to a straight one. Beating people wasn't out of the question for these guys. More than a few punches and bashes to the head were thrown at the Oromanians who couldn't scramble back fast enough. Including Johan. He was grabbed by the collar and bashed up side his head backward into the husky 25-year-old.

Johan regained his lost foot balance and brought his head up into the bottom of the officer's chin.

"_Ow, bad move." _Johan grit his teeth and scrunched his face up to hold back the pain radiating from the top of his head. The soldier held his chin before his anger boiled over causing his gun to prepare itself to make another crushing blow to the blunette's head.

The metal device, before making contact to its target, was grappled by husky man and ripped away from the soldiers arm. Before more chaos erupted onto the Oromanians, he threw the gun to the side and roped Johan back in front of him. He held Johan's head forward away from the eyesight of the soldier and coaxed him forward with the moving line.

"_I'm fucking stupid! Impulsive stupid, stupid, STUPID! Why should I fight back when I can just act like he is nothing to me! God damn it! Think it through!" _Johan kept beating himself up until he realized he was face to face with White collar.

The man's clammy hands ran themselves up under Johan's chin. His topaz eyes pierced through Johan's confident gaze and he found himself cowering back in fear from the man's look.

"Very nice even though you're a boy too. How 'bout playing as a girl for me so I can get more money?" The man snaked his hands around down to Johan's neck. His fingers pulled lightly on his blue locks and curled around the outer shell of his ear. His twisted face got even scarier as a smirk tugged at the edge of his lips and his topaz color darkened. A visible shutter trailed down Johan's spine and his lips quivered in fear.

"Is that a yes?" The man sneered inching closer to Johan's face. Eye contact was impossible and Johan didn't know where to look but down. "Your life is about to change." His breath echoed like another one of his sickening touches through Johan's body.

"Number him and put him with the rest." White collar shoved him away and began his assessment of his next victim. Johan's shoulders were forced to the ground while the fear was still exiting his system. He was still trembling and hardly felt the new cattle tag being pierced into his cartilage.

A squeak of pain escaped his lips and he was once again lifted like a bag of sand being passed from the store into the back of a truck. Senses coming back and fear leaving Johan thrashed around once more.

"No! Stop! Let me down!" Johan called out a continuing spew of overused protests, hoping that one of them would work. This soldier however was not as lenient with his pestering squirming. He threw the teen to the ground and threw a quick kick to his abdomen to shut up the incessant yelling.

"Shudda fuck up, Oromanian!" He yelled and let loose another blow to his solar plexus. Hacked up air and spit came out of the blunette's mouth and he limply slumped the side with each blow.

"Stop! We need him in top condition if we are gonna get anything out of him!" White collar stepped in and glared at the soldier. Johan's view of the ground zoomed out when he was lifted once again onto the soldier's shoulder. His body still shifted in protest but it wasn't anything as fierce as his previous thrashing.

Johan reunited with his friend the wood crate floor and other terrified people. There were just a few more people being led in.

"_Haaa… I wonder what happened to Rally and Jack… and Yusei… did they make it?" _

All the people were in and the doors were being prepped.

"_Oroman… will I ever see it again?"_

His other friend the darkness was now joining the party with the closing doors.

"_Can I really still—"_

_Darkness…_

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"_Ummm… ? What… What is that? … Ugh, my throat hurts… I need water… wait… ! WATER!" _Johan would normally bolt upward when he was startled from sleep but with his arms being the way they are – behind his back, the plastic rubbing off his skin with every move- he was only able to slouch over in the water sideways. His leg muscles fought vigorously to pull his upper body off and away from the rising water.

"What the hell!" Johan opened and closed and squinted his eyes in an attempt to see what was happening. His emerald eyes caught sight of a crack in the wood with a mini waterfall spewing from it.

"shit… Everyone Get Up!" Johan yelled, head stretched to the sky with his neck elongated like a giraffe for his voice to reach everyone in the crate.

"W-what… Kyaaa!" A blonde girl next to him did exactly what Johan did but she had an easier time getting up do to her lucky position of how her arms were tied-in front of her and with rope.

More screams were heard as more people were waking up. Most were girls from what Johan's eyes could actually see, with –thank god- the exception of a few handful of guys.

"Guys!" Johan attempted to calm the storm of panicking cries.

"People~!" Still getting nowhere~!

"HEY!" Every sobbing, fear-torn face looked over to Johan. The pressure was on. _"Okay Johan... breathe…"_

"This crate is sinking!" His voice boomed through the closed off darkness of the crate. More sobbing and now murmuring were growing in volume.

"STOP! We need to get out now!" Johan was nowhere near a wall so he had to do his best to get up. His best meaning getting on his knees, putting all his weight on his face and pushing his butt upward and balancing his weight against the rocking crate to stand up.

"We-need-to-get-out." His voice was calm and collected, like a leader.

"The crate is sinking and pretty fast. There is a crack over there." The blunette nudged his head to his left trying to show the people where it is. "Is there anybody who can reach it?" His emerald eyes scanned over his oh-so willing-crowd the best he could in the darkness.

"Please! I can't do anything with my hands, but I will still help. Is there anyone with a better hand position?" More unwillingness filled the silence.

"I-I think I can…" The feeble voice came from below him. The blonde teenage girl he was next to struggled to get up. Her wobbly knee shook and fiercely flinched whenever a wave knocked against the wood box they were in.

"Thank you, I'm Johan. Ah… I would shake hands but—"

"Asuka, that's okay I d-don't th-think it matters." Asuka wiped her tears the best she could with the way her hands were, but all she managed to do was curl her hands into a more uncomfortable position.

"We are gonna break open the crate and—"

"WHAT!" Half of the people cried out. "Why we are fine in here!"

"We'll drown!"

"That's crazy!"

"What else is there!" Johan confuted. "We are sinking, the crate is gonna fill up with water! We need to get to the surface and then—" Johan actually stopped himself from speaking and though… 'then what'.

"Your crazy…" Were the muttered words that he ears caught.

Water was gaining, beating the time they had left to… possibly live. Their pants soaked through to their knees; Johan's school pants chafing his skin and his socks, sodden with seawater, meshed around his feet sending an inner gagging sensation through his senses.

"Can you reach the crack?" They both looked up, their eyesight above their head meaning-sadly- it was above their normal reach.

"I'll try…" Asuka trailed off, already unsure of the outcome. Asuka guided her hands up the wall and holding them below the crack before she jumped up to reach for it. Her mouth got a whole splash of salty sea shit. She quickly repositioned her head so that her neck was stretched to the side and the water trailed down to her shirt.

"I cant hold on!" Asuka choked out, more water seething into her mouth. With hands being tied, if one hand lets go… well then the other goes with it.

"Kyaa!" Asuka squeaked nervously when she felt something holding her up from her butt. "What are you doing! Don't touch me like that!"

She shifted to get out of Johan's grope, but he held her firm. "It's not like that… cause I'm… causeimgay…"

"What!" She cried again, now her face red tinted and water soaked.

"I'M GAY, ALRIGHT! So stop freaking out, I'm not doing that kind of thing. I just want to get these people out." Johan could feel the heat coming from his face from saying his secret so loud. He was still, you know… shy to come out of the closet and in the past when he had… it basically blew up in his face every time.

"Ah-Ohh… Sorry… c-can you push me up a little higher then." The blonde was finally able to get her face out of the waterfall and now able to see the top of the crack.

She grappled her hands the best she could around the two sides of the crack and gave her best attempt at a pull. That one strong pull followed with little short, quick pulls that rocked the crate even more back and forth. She braced her grip for another weight throwing and let loose her strength to rip the board away. She almost fell atop of the blunette if it weren't for Johan forcing her back to the wall.

"Try that again!" Johan jumped up to shift her closer for a second try. The water couldn't wait forever for the Oromanians to get out; the water was up to his belly button now and only in a matter of minutes.

Asuka braced her hands for another ripping motion. She leaned forward face submerged into the water and flung all her weight backwards. Asuka's weight, body and a good chunk of the wood board fell backwards into the water below. The blunette quickly got a hold of the blonde with his awkward backward hand grab thing and brought her up to the surface that was quickly losing air space.

The water was gouging out all it had to offer. Screams called out higher than the rushing water.

"Everyone! We are swimming to the surface! Get over here!" Johan yelled once again showing his giraffe neck and that popping veins on it. Everyone rushed, pushing over each other to get out before their escape was sealed.

All the panicking citizens made it to the exit but were still getting out one by one. "Help each other get out and up to the surface!" Johan reminded. He trudged through the neck high water to check for any other people who may not have got out, but it was clear.

"Johan! They are all out! Lets go!" He could hear Asuka calling out but he couldn't see her. "Coming! Go on ahead! I'll be right there!" Johan made his way back over to where he came from but luck just hated him right now; the hole that held the exit, the wall holding it ripped off completely and the whole crate submerged in water.

"AHHH!" Johan was met with a swift current that forced his body back to the other side of the sinking death box. He gurgled and most of his air supply he quickly breathed in was lost from the shock of the wave.

Human instincts couldn't take over, his arms couldn't glide him through the water and his legs couldn't possibly get him out of this situation. More gurgling and leg flailing got Johan nowhere. His face was turning the color of his hair and his eyes desperately searched for a lifesaver.

Not this time.

He coughed out the rest of his air and sucked in too much water as a reflex for looking for air. His body shook violently with seizure like tremors until nothing. His body became motionless and his eyes dull and lifeless flickered their last movement before catching a glimpse of a black figure swimming up and pulling at his elbow.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Fifty do I hear fifty fo' number 26, Fifty… There we awe Fifty! Do I hear fifty five! Anyone… Goin' once, twice, SOLD fo' fifty to the gentleman in green near da back." The voice registered to Johan as one of those Carney people you see selling any piece of scrap they can scrounge up just for an extra buck.

The blunette groggily flexed his limp eyelids up, trying to bring his body back to reality. His arms found themselves in a new spot- not much better than the old one. Tied to either side of him, but on what? The binds felt different; rope for sure this time, old twine maybe? His reawakening nerves gained control of his head and neck only to be reunited with a thumping headache situated over his left eyebrow. His were shoulder sore. Throat not only dry but now bitter tasting and his cheeks covered with little nubs from all the chewing he had done to them over the past hours.

Was it really hours?… maybe days… Not more than a week right?

Johan flicked his neck upward just enough to her a small clinking sound dance around his eardrum. Another flick upward, with more strength, made the teen realize he was being treated like a dog. An old, grubby metal clasp snaked its way around Johan bruised neck. His eyes finally open and flickering back to life looked down to find a chain just as dirty and rusted connected from the clasp to the floor. A groggy head turn confirmed his earlier guess of his hands, on either side of him, being bound by an old worn rope. His whole chest was slouched forward, on his knees and the reason his shoulders felt sore was his arms being held out to either side, exposing everything facing forward. One more thing that finally Johan's brain was able to figure out…

He was stark naked from head to toe. Every inch of his pale skinny flesh was flaunting itself out for everyone to see.

"_Well at least no one is here…" _Spoke too soon. The Carney voice he heard earlier was coming from a man, a man who was now the one responsible for exposing Johan, to a crowd of one hundred plus people.

"Number 27 folks. Oromanian boy just brought from the latest attack. Age 16 or 17 we believe and folks look, look at this stunning hair!" The teen still shell shocked felt thin finger raking through his hair and pulling every so often to show the length to everyone at the back.

The blunette jerked his head down left away from the Carney on his high right and from what his sight registered (after being blinded by the light) was only a blobbed, distorted figure of a human.

"Looks like he still wants to fight eh?" The last syllables rolling off his tongue were missed by Johan because of the electric shock that coursed through his body once or twice. His voice box coughed out a hoarse cry of pain and Johan lost the strength to hold his head so he just let it lay limp.

Murmurs of excitement at number 27 bubbled up around the room. "Now, now folks I'm not done. Gender: male, although its hard to tell from this face." The Carney furthered his claim by repeating what White collar did to Johan. A light tug to the bottom of his chin sent Johan into a slight panic that it was white collar again, here to do sadistic things to the boy.

"Let go!" Another hoarse croak escaped but still loud enough for the crowd to hear. He fought to pry the man's fingers away from him but his hands were still sprawled out to either side. Instead he ripped his chin away and readied himself to bite but held back his impulsiveness.

"_D-don't b-be impulsive. D-don't move, d-ont m-mov-ve…" _Tears of fear rolled silently down the sides of Johan's red cheeks. No matter how hard his eyes tried to shut themselves the tears were still coming out. His luck found a way back to him and he didn't receive another spine tingling shock.

"Fifty!" One of the buyers from the back called out. Geez the auction hadn't even started yet.

"Seventy!"

"No here! One hundred!" a mini fight broke out in the crowds of the hungry Alrans.

"One fifty!"

"Two hundred!"

"Five hundred!" The voices were desperate… and lustful.

"People, people hold yur horses!" The Carney man lost control of his auction as more people called out prices, topping off the ones called before them.

"Five thousand!" One man called out. He sounded older yet refined more than the other trash around him.

"F-FIVE TH-THOUSAND!" The Carney dropped his mike and gaped at the crazy man, catching more than enough lies in the process.

The teary-eyed blunette lifted up his head, slowly. Slowly his eyes came up to the crowd of shocked people out in front of him. Slowly the man who had bet the highest on him was walking his way. Slowly… that wasn't really how Johan's life was changing.

"SOLD!"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Blistered, torn, red hands twitched back to life. The surface they swerved across felt rough yet had softness to it.

"… _ughnnn…c-carpet?..." _The one thing Johan's mind is able to crank out, 'carpet'; he was that worn out. More of his hand gained motion and stroke the rough bur-bur carpet downward.

"…_Clothes?..." _With his arm movement he felt fabric shift around under his arm and on his back. It was loose fitting and a little scratchy from what his skin, what was left of it, could feel. His neck still had the clasp on but the end wasn't secured to anything. _"Weird…"_

The blunette teen's breath collected itself into a long exhale, like a sigh but without the attitude. His eyes fluttered open and his first sight was a mixed blur of kaleidoscope colors that sent his headache back into full swing. A low cough, groan escaped his now burning and cracked throat. He managed to roll his body over and his, now stilled, vision focused on an Alroh flag mounted high up on a dark green wall with guns mounted beneath it.

"_Oh shit… th-the… military…" _The voice inside his mind reached its highest in an attempt not to break out sobbing. Fresh tears pooled up in his eyes and he couldn't help but wrench his eyes closed, pushing the tears down his cheeks.

"_w-why… of all places…" _His chest jolted up from Johan's on coming sob that he was so desperately trying to keep silent. His teeth jawed on his cheek again to calm himself. He rotated his head round the room for another look. Map, a globe, plaques, a desk, filing cabinets, and then there was the flag again.

He forced his beaten body upward to sit and his stomach lurched forward to heave up another round of grey stomach acid. It brought on a whole burning pain to his throat and he whimpered for water to ease it. He crawled to a wall and as a cane he used himself to make his way into a standing position.

His head spun only for a moment and thankfully his stomach was quelled from its previous outburst. He trailed his finger along the wall till he gave his body a light push to stand on his own. A few wobbles left and right but he was finally standing; standing in front of a large gold plaque that had small font embroidered at the top and then in big black letters at the bottom he read, _"I will eternally serve…? What does it say?"_

He took a step forward and traced the letters, _"S-E-R-V-E L-O-R-D Y-U—"_

**Knock Knock Knock**

Johan jumped back and stood ready for… something. His knees bent and arms bent forward in anticipation.

"Sir you are— Oh god what is that?" He seemed to be talking about Johan's stomach crap spewed on the tight-knotted carpet. "Hey someone needs to clean this up!" The man called walking away from the door, not bothering to pick it up himself.

The blunette stopped the door before it closed and held it ajar for a brief moment before sprinting down the hall. Who knew where the hell he was going, anywhere but here that's for sure. He came to a room but all there was, was a window. He panicked, his ears started to play tricks and he could swear he heard foots steps all around him. His elbow bumped a stack of papers and folders that crashed to the floor with a hushed sound.

"Unnnn… What….do I— *sobs* d-do-o. I cant…" He broke down there for a moment; sinking to the floor crying to himself pitifully until his eyebrows perked and eyes popped open.

"_T-that's right… I cant qu-quit here…" _He rose back up and balling up his fists till his knuckles turned white. He got a picture frame off the wall; a metal rimmed one. He crawled up on the top of a filing cabinet and thrust the corner of it into the window.

Well he broke it and got his way out… but he also got an ear full of an ALARM SOUNDING OFF!

WEE WOO WEE WOO It sounded just like the firemen at Oroman.

"KYAAA!" Johan screamed and nearly fell off the desk. He was about to crawl out but just before he had to have a moment of depression for his girly scream he just belted out… not helping with the whole gender-confusing-thing. With a few squirms and wiggles he managed to squeeze out of the window only receiving a few dozen-glass scratches.

~ Streets of Alroh still Johan(sorry… we are getting there!)~

Broken cement blocks were the sidewalks, dirt, the road and rubble stacked on top of each other were the houses, with pieces of tarps strewn over some. The air was brisk and chilling but not enough to create snow. Johan's breath formed in front of him every time he limped forward and puffed out another raspy breath.

"_Tired…"_

The frigid ground cooled his burning feet and he couldn't help but stop and lay his face against the broken brick of a uh house? People passed him without a care in the world. He was invisible and no one cared to even suspect he was a criminal or escapee.

A group of people passing by bumped shoulders with the blunette, no one really stopping to see if he was alright since he fell to the ground. The ten weakly pulled himself into an alley, some dark cool place between too rubble buildings. He found himself a nice wall and leaned his burning skin against it.

"Awww~ nice and cool." The teen sighed. He looked up at the sky. It was nothing like Oroman. The sky was a sullen grey, the color during a foggy morning or the type of sky that would loom after a rainstorm. There was a subtle smell of smoke, but very faint. The most noticeable feature he noticed so far was the lacking of real houses. Well there was stacked rubble. Yeah that's about it. Cans of fire with raggedy looking people huddled around them lined the dirt streets and there wasn't a single green thing in sight.

His emerald eyes rested themselves but not long enough till he heard a rock come rolling toward him. It was the group he 'bumped' into earlier.

"Hey sweetie! What are you doing dressed like that?" Normally something like this would sound concerned or worried but this one was hissed through his lips, almost playfully called out to him.

Johan didn't respond.

The group of men, probably age twenty-one or higher stalked forward to the boy, sinful smiles plastered on all of their faces.

It was fight-or-flight time and Johan was going with the flight. His brain sent out the signals to run but his muscles couldn't deliver. Instead he flopped over pathetically and pulled himself as far away from the men as he could.

"Awww~ don't be like that~" One of the men feigned being hurt and bent down next to Johan hand ready to caress the his prey's cheek. Johan moved his hands out from underneath him, allowing his body to fall to the dirt road and he slapped away his hand. That might have been a rash move but his tolerance for fear was gone.

The man with black hair didn't take too kind to this. His eyes narrowed and in one swift motion his grabbed a fistful of Johan's garment and gave him back the slap ten fold. It was his other cheek this time; his dry, cracked lips broke to let out a small dribble of blood along with his cheek swelling up red. His eyelashes were sprinkled with teardrops and his body was unmoving, except for the unstoppable quaking his body was doing.

"Don't worry… we'll be sure to at least stretch you." The man's voice had the same sinister tone. Johan made one last attempt to push away, but the shift in his weight only made it easier for the black haired man to shove him back to the ground, arms pinned to his sides, legs sprawled out different ways and his head withering sporadically in every which way.

"NOOoo-mmph." Johan looked up tears done being closed up, they poured freely down his face, eyes stricken with fear, pupils shaking back and forth almost vibrating in slow motion. The hand over his mouth made harder to breath than before and his increasing breaths weren't helping.

"He looks like a pretty good fuck. You scared the shit out of him though, he's not even moving." A scrawny blonde man knelt down beside him and fingered the chain till he pulled it taught.

"Looks like little inu-chan lost his way." Smirked the blonde one. The black man went behind Johan and both the blonde and the blackette flipped Johan over onto his stomach. With his mouth free again he wailed as loud as his dying voice could handle, hoping someone passing by would care to stop and help.

"NO, STOP , urgh… nooo! Let go—ah!" The blunette felt the cold air fill in between his legs where his pants were supposed to be. He gaped for air, but the chain around his neck was pulled so close to the ground he couldn't breathe in the amount of air he wanted. More water was coming from his eyes that were widened, pupil the size of a pea. He freed a hand being held by one of the men and he whipped it forward digging his fingers through the dirt, leaving behind claw marks, in a last desperate attempt to come out of this clean.

"Nnnah! S-stop, please! Unnnnn~ AHHH!" His ass was crushed roughly and lifted up so that his knees could touch the ground. His back bet down like a half pipe face on the ground, hands bound in front of him, ass waving in the air like a bitch in heat.

Johan's face was having its own seizure and all he could move were his shoulders because his hands and rear were being bound in some way. The teen was trying to preserve his pride but all instincts and actions were betraying him.

His rampant whirlwind of thoughts couldn't process anything. The whirlwind became blank like an untouched pool of water when he felt a finger pushing itself in through his entrance. One was joined by one and then two and three, all too fast for Johan to get used to the penetration.

"NnnnghAHHH!" Pleading for him to stop was a distant dream and all that Johan could utter from his quivering mouth were painful groans, some muffled others were cries for help, in a way.

On top of being ass fucked by one man's fingers, he not felt his a spit slick hand grouping and squeezing his length. The blunette's breath hitched and the rest of his gasps were quick rasps being sucked back in to fill his lungs.

"mmmNahh~" Johan moaned as pleasure was starting to build up inside him. It was shameful, but his body couldn't deny it felt good. His jerking shoulders stilled and his hips began to go along with the fingers thrusting motion. His emerald eyes hazed over and he let his breath come out heavily panting.

"Just as I thought… everyone likes it in the end." One of the thugs said to another.

Johan's messed up brain registered and quickly brought his body back into check. He fought back the urge of pleasure and began to rock his knees and shoulders away from the rapists.

His chain was freed and he lunged forward biting the man that was once holding him down and kicking the man in the back. The rough disconnection of the thugs fingers tore a slit in his hole and the impact with the ground wasn't pleasant either.

He had his moment of hope because four vs. one never ended in favor of the one. His chain was yanked, jerking his throat along with it and his back was dealt several blows before he finally stopped moving. The haze in his eyes was threatening to come back. Eyelids wavering, limbs failing. There was no more physical fight left and the mental was dying out as well.

"_Is it gonna end like this?" _Johan could feel his body being put back into the torturous position. The tears were gone, his muscles were dead and sore. He was beaten and now he may be broken…

"I'm going first." It was a husky voice from what he could still hear.

"_No…" _His eyes still held his will to fight back but that was the only outside body part not drained. The hands that had fondled him before clenched around his ass and he felt his body being shifted to the left so that he was centered.

"_Please… someone…" _He felt the tip of the other man's cock push itself in. _"He's in…" _Johan whimpered and shut his eyes ready for his torture to start… till he heard gunshots and dog barks.

He felt his body fall to the side and the rapists scramble out of the alley away leaving their game, they'd be able to find more later. Hope washed over him like the water he desperately needed. He laid still, one his side, not a single muscle dared to flex while his breathing leveled out.

His pale, ice skin warmed when he felt a rough but gentle hand brush over his shoulder and carefully readjust him to laying on his back.

That was when his emerald pools met caramel. It reminded him of coffee after you pour creamer into it and stirred it to get a whole new color. It soothed him. He could spend hours gazing into this man's eyes.

"Hey, get up. Your fine now kay." Well that wasn't very heart warming. You definitely can't judge a book by its cover. The warming eyes lifted up and away from Johan's reach and the man began to walk away.

"Wait!" The blunette reached up grabbing hold of his tattered maroon-red coat and now caught a quick glimpse of his chocolate brown hair; two tones.

"_Ow…"_

"W-wait…" His voice died off and his body finally gave out, collapsing to the side. Those warm hands once again softly caught, and laid him down.

His vision was in and out of blackness. He looked out behind the teen and saw a brown furry dog, about a mid-sized dog, with only three legs. His last strength was used to look up at his savior. He glanced up at worried eyes and the last thing he saw were the black letters J.Y. on the edge of his maroon coat.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**NYAHHHHHH DONNNNNNEEEEE~! There its Judai! Be happy! I know I am! Yay! **

**LaLaLandx3: Glad you reviewed twice ^^ Johan is my fave too! 3 But I think Jack(ass) is done, so his punishment is no more screen time X3**

**jhayride: I know I already PMed you the answer to your questions but im gonna put them up for everyone. **

**1.)yes Jehu and Haou will be coming *****sqeals***** love them too much. They probably come like after johan and Judai actually form a relation ship and know each others name.**

**2.) Judai rich or poor?- Well he is in Alroh so basically poor but he has Johan so he is the richest man in the world ^^**

**Thank you for favs from **

**CrazySpiritFan**

**Risa Anderson Yuki**

**I think that's everyone (many apologies if its not)**


	4. Chapter 4

**:((((((((( … D8 Its been a long time… meh! I tried to fit more time to type this but there were too many papers and then I wanted to do a short encore for PL cause I felt inspired…**

**btw: Judai is gonna be more season 4 attitude wise, so don't say I'm making him OOC, his friendlier, kid-like side will get some screen time.**

**BUT NOW full attention to this story!**

Chapter 4 – First Glance

Johan's fingers slowly uncurled of the edges of his frayed jacket and soon he let go all together sinking to the ground. The brunette stayed in his stance, taking in the scene that just unfolded. His honey brown eyes examined the unconscious blunette, looking down at his bruised and red back all the way from his feet to his dirt laden teal hair. His shirt, gone, and his sad excuse for a pair of shorts were caught in the crook of his bent knees.

"Rrrroof! Woof!" His head perked up and he cocked it backward to see Hane Kuriboh impatiently pacing the front of the alley then glancing at the outside streets and barking at him again. Someone was coming, most likely the group of men back to get revenge but with more numbers since there wasn't really a police force, yet his eyes still wondered back over to the blunette.

"Rwaf! Rwoof!" Another call form Kuriboh brought Judai's gaze away from the blunette. He understood the barking commands to 'get away' and began to reply by hesitantly retreating and walking towards Hane Kuriboh. His muscles tensed, ready to sprint back out of the alley the way he came in but he stopped. He relaxed and turned his head back around to get another glimpse at Johan still limp and unmoving on the dirt floor. His gaze wasn't sympathetic but contemplative.

"Damn it." He swore under his breath and without another moment to gaze at the teen he trotted over, bent down and maneuvered his hands gently under Johan's legs so he could slide his shorts back on. He rolled the boy onto his back and then bent down to scoop him up by the back of his neck and knees. _"Damn he's light." _The blunette's body just seemed to mold perfectly to the sides of Judai's chest and his head rolled diagonally down so that it rested on the brunette's chest.

"Woof Rrroof Woof!" The barks from his companion were becoming more and more irritated. He even started a low growl to show he was getting pissed.

"Just be quite! I know!" His arms clutched onto the blunette's body hugging it tight to his own, bringing him up out of his princess hold. He repositioned the boy into something like a backwards piggyback, with his legs dangling on either side of his waist and his bare chest resting against his. One of his hands held him up under his rear while the other repositioned his head. His fingers, that were also dirt covered, raked through the locks of his hair and guided his head up onto his shoulder so he could run faster. After he was situated he cupped him tighter to his body as if to protect him from oncoming rain and quick stepped over to his friend.

He caught up with Hane Kuriboh. The bark brown border collie, with two splotches of white on his back, sat back on his two hind legs and straightened out his one leg in the front. The nub where his front leg was supposed to be was covered with long brown tuffs of fur and you couldn't really see the end of the nub area anymore. The dog's ears pinned back and his yellow eyes glared at his partner for his delayed response and almost ignoring him completely.

"Sheesh, I'm sorry now lets go!" Judai peeked his head out of the alley with a quick left-right-left then bolted across the street avoiding any piles of rubble or people in the way.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"_Darkness… There's just black…" _Johan was slowly walking through a never-ending maze of darkness. There was nothing to smell, to see, to touch, or hear, just empty blackness. The blunette picked up a brisk walk from his previous speed as he began to feel anxiety building up inside him. His heart yearned to find light so he would be alleviated of his quickening breath and welling up tears. His quick trot broke into a sprint, but he didn't get more than five feet when the dark floor from under him morphed into a black liquid. Water.

His arms flailed above him, fingering for a ledge to grab onto. His spastic kicking legs felt heavier than lead and he slowly felt his head sinking deeper and deeper into the watery grave.

"NOOO!~ Oooo-oo…" His scream was muffled, his lungs filled with water and his body became fully submerged in the water. His arms made one last reach for the surface but there he couldn't feel the surface air, there was just an infinite amount of water surrounding him… suffocating him. Memories of his previous encounter with water began to make his heart rate soar and his lungs burn.

Lungs already choked from his previous scream were aching in pain to receive some air. His hands reacted on instinct and gripped at his neck. His eyelids wrinkled from the force he was using to close them but then his body doubled over when his last bit of air was coughed out, turning into bubbles floating up… never reaching the surface… taunting him.

His body jerked back when he found there was no air to breath in and only water to choke on. His skin now pale and gaze lost in the realm between death and half-life. His body is now motionless and hands returning to their sides, falling gently through the zero gravity water.

"_Not… now…" _His eyelids tried to blink away the clouding black spots blotting his vision.

Then,

A hand shot down through the water reaching out to him. That hand stretched farther and farther to reach him, fingers stretched out to their fullest in desperation to help him.

"Johan… Take it…" The voice echoed through the water and rung in Johan's ears. It sounded more like a frustrated command then a concerned plea, but it was warm and gentle yet still powerful and dignified. Johan's head tilted back to get a glimpse of this man but the black spots his vision was plagued with covered the face.

"_Please…"_

"Just take it!" The voice commanded again and shot father down into the water. Johan's fingers pushed themselves out further, reaching for the hand. For the faintest moment the two hands brushed each other's with their fingers but the moment was short lived when the water vanished and was replaced with the previous darkness, but no floor to walk on, only a dark abyss.

"AHHHHHHH!" His hoarse voice leaped out of his chest by itself when he began his free falling descent. Gravity lifting his innards up from their normal places and soon his voice floated out of his body too and there was just a silent free fall.

"JOHAN!" …

…

… Blackout…

…

"Johan." The blunette's eyes flew open when he heard the voice. It was different from the one before. He found his feet very quickly, still taken with fear from his water experience and saw the room he was in had an air of royalty; red velvet carpets and tapestries, gold trim wallpaper covered by lush paintings all covered an unending room. The air was stagnant for there were no windows or doors, and at the opposite end of the dimension held a large throne chair made from black painted oak with red cushions trimmed with golden tassels. In it sat a large man.

"Welcome Johan." His voice menacing and his entire face covered, hiding all emotions, except his mouth. He wore a crimson velvet robe that draped down over his legs and the long sleeves went all the way down to his leather gloves. Nothing about him said or could be considered 'welcoming'. Who was he?

Johan's legs were bent and arms slightly flexed at his sides, ready to defend himself or run if necessary (most likely run). He couldn't help but flinch and take a step back when the man stood from his chair and took a step towards him.

"Come on kid. Do it."

"What?" Johan completely perplexed relaxed his tense muscles. He blinked once and the man was gone. _"What the…?" _ His spine received a chilling wave along with his skin getting goose bumps. His churning stomach felt non-existent and his breath stopped till he heard the words…

"I'm right here." The words were whispered next to his left ear. The second Johan whipped his body around to swipe away the danger next to him his neck became caught in a chokehold. The cloaked figure affirmed his grip and dug his fingers into the blunette's skin causing a rapid bruise ring to form and spread all over his neck.

"Come on Johan! You swore you would take me down! BUT YOU CANT BEAT ME IF I KILL YOU NOW!" Johan fell to his knees, his hands tried to pry his neck free but the man's grip was iron. He could feel his temporal pulse beating against his head in a rapid rhythm.

"I can… and-I… I will…" Johan choked out, flashing a malicious smirk at his attacker and future prey. He used up too much breath and from what he could hear there was a door, somewhere, and it opened.

"Ha ha… aha ha ha HA HA HAHAHAH AHAHAHAHA! DIE!"

"JOHAN!"

~Blackout~

"_There was… that voice again…"_

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"_Light?... ... argh… there's that smell again… wait?" _The blunette jerked up from his laying down position, gulping in buckets of air cause his lungs felt like they had none left. His pupils blinded from the sudden change of dark to light and were now smaller that peas. His hands felt below him touching damp trash. He looked to see that it was actually a pile of folded cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other, coated with a sticky wetness. The scratchy sensation his legs felt was a faded burlap sack covering most of his shins and part of his upper body.

His hands jerked up and palpated his neck for anything suffocating him but there wasn't. His hands slid down and brushed against his bare chest. His breath hitched from shock when he realized he didn't have a shirt; although, he did have something covering him. All up and down his were purple bruises rimmed with a gaging yellow-green color, each beauty spot ranging in different shapes (hand prints) and sizes. There were also red scratches some still dripping with blood and others dry, red rimmed and swelling from puss forming on the inside. The room began to spin around him and his head bobbed around with it. The colors of the room slowly morphing into an earth toned colored kaleidoscope.

"If you're gonna throw up, do it outside."

All at once the room stopped its dancing and Johan steadied himself enough to look up and see that the voice came from a guy, probably a little older than him.

When Johan finally stopped seeing doubles he was star struck. His eyes kept flickering to different parts of the brunette there were too many things to marvel at. Most of his outfit was dark colors. His skinny jeans were a dark grey, cuffed at the bottom and those were paired with a plain black shirt. He also wore a dark, faded maroon jacket that fell to the sides of his hips. There were a few zippers and some broken pockets on the front and a hood on his back. His eyes held a familiar warm brown color and his hair, too, was the same chocolate color topped with a lighter caramel color. You would expect brown just to be well… the color brown and well boring, but this color complimented his muscular physique and the patches of dust that you could see all over his pants and jacket. His whole presence made the dank walls around him non-existent.

"_He's amazing…" —_"W-were you the one who saved me?" Johan nearly whispered suddenly feeling self-conscious and embarrassed.

"Yeah." The teen laconically answered, not really paying mind to the question. He looked around for a moment and found his backpack across the room. He walked over to it and began rummaging through it.

"Th-thank you… um…" He cheeks flushed a pale pink remembering his unattractive body was being showcased in front of his savior.

"No problem." Another curt answer that didn't really sound like his mind was in the conversation.

"I-I'm Johan… and you… are?" His question, asked out of politeness and normal introduction autopilot, got him a cold glare from his savior.

"Grrrrr" The blunette visibly flinched and turned to his side and saw the dog from earlier snarling at him with his lips raised over his sharp yellowing teeth..

"_Th-three legs…" _His face eased itself from its fearful look into one of sympathy. "_He lost a part of him and he still continues to fight on."_

The Border collie lightened up his fierce front and cautiously trotted over to the blunette. His slick, black nose slide across Johan's hand leaving a wet trail of relief on his burning hands. When Johan looked down to see what the burning sensation was the harm inflicted to his wrists. Each one had its own new set of bangles in the form of bruises ranging from the colors purple, black, blue, and even yellow. It churned his stomach and made his eyes cringe. There weren't just bruises, but deep gashes that had a mixture of dried blood, swelling redness and fresh blood still oozing out of some cracked spots.

Johan jerked his head away from the sores finding the moldy, rubble walls more of an appealing sight. He tried to cover his wrists but it only made his body jump from the piercing pain. That's when it hit him.

"Where… am I?"

"Alroh." I guess you would expect someone to give you a street name or state but he went for the whole freaking continent, I guess the brunette thought the answer would be obvious but… when the brunette turned around he saw the teen wide eyed and shaking.

"A-aa… llr…" He couldn't even bring himself to say the name he was experiencing a minor shock episode.

"_I know it's a crappy place to live dude but do you really have to say it like that?" _Judai thought. He took the rag he fished out from his backpack and threw it at Johan.

"Go on and clean yourself… oh and wash good down there, you never know where or who people have been with." He nudged his head over to the other side of the room to a bucket of water. Johan's face regained its lost heat in the form of a blush. He uncovered himself to stand up but froze when he heard the cocking of a gun. It came from the brunette. He had pulled out his handgun, laid it on the table, all the while staring at Johan.

"Wh-what's that for…?" -" _Is he gonna kill me?"_

"Precaution." The brunette spoke and then resumed his quiet stare. Johan, reluctantly, staggered to get up and hobbled over to the bucket. He could feel a small stinging sensation whenever he alternated his legs down where his hole is. It was definitely from that time. He took one more step haggard step before he collapsed to the floor, hands catching him for a moment before they too collapsed. But the brunette continued to stare at the helpless blunette.

Johan's face heated up again from seeing how weak he was. He picked up his battered body and began to crawl toward the bucket. He struggled on about two feet before a foot stomped in front of him. He flinched downward when he saw the tip of his gun and covered his head thinking he would be killed but nothing happened. He peeked up to see the brunette's hand outstretched towards him.

"Take it." From just those words Johan's mouth dropped and his eyes dilated in astonishment. _"Johan… Take it…" _

He hesitated. _"Is this real?"_

"Just take it!" The brunette hero growled at him. Johan reached up and his weak hold was helped up by the brunette. He had a hand around the back of Johan and he took Johan's hand around his neck. The brunette still had a gun tucked into his pants, so he was still cautious.

He set the blunette down next to the tin tub and slipped off his shorts. Johan burned in embarrassment when he was completely nude but his saviour didn't seem to care. The instant the Johan's skin hit the ice water it felt like a mix of relief blended with a tingling sensation.

"Hane Kuriboh, watch him." The brunette commanded, continuing his scrub down of Johan. The border collie trotted over and plunked himself in front of Johan, his yellow eyes trained on his every movement.

The half rusted tin tub was just big enough for Johan to it in if he tucked his legs in. Every time his savior wiped off another layer of dirt and pain he felt his heart melt. The rag was rough when it crossed his back but then he would feel _his_ hand prop up his back. The warmth from his hand soothed lulled him and made him forget all about the frigid water. He felt like the biggest idiot when he saw a rag being shaken in front of his face, prompting him to take it.

"Hello! Take it!" There were those words again. That same voice.

"S-sorry…" Johan hesitantly grasped the rag and them just starred at it.

"Clean yourself stupid." Judai scoffed and then walked back to the half blown up table he was at before. Johan's cheeks tinted a deeper shade of red from how stupid he acted just then.

His cleansing was unbearably embarrassing when he had to get on his knees to scrub his bottom. Sliding the rag back and forth over his entrance and eventually having to go in himself and wash away the disgust he felt. He decided to stop when he started to feel aroused from his own fingering.

When he crawled out of the tub he looked behind and saw a pool of grubby dirt brown water. Flakes of kin floated at the top and you could see a blood stain on the side of the tub. The once refreshing water was turned into a repulsive eye sore and he was left cold and shivering.

"_What do I do now?" _Johan thought to himself as he huffed some of his hot breath onto his frosted body. He was sitting upright on next to the tub when he felt warmth envelope him. The brunette was resting a jacket on him. The coat was thick and wooly on the inside and waterproof on the outside. But now that he took a closer look at the jacket he saw the military insignia on it. Johan's heart sunk and the will to sit up was being fiercely challenged.

"A-are y-you in the military?" He whispered through chattering teeth.

"No. In this town whatever you can find you can have, so I found the jacket in a pile of trash near here, fixed it up and took it for myself when winter comes. Plus it's really common because a lot of people have stolen clothes."

"_That was a winded answer… personality change much?" _Johan thought as he stared at the brunette. He flinched when he saw Judai returning his stare but with a nasty look. He was about ready to run when the brunette strode towards him with his gun again in his hand.

"I'm sorry!" Johan shielded his face when he was forced down to the ground by the brunette. His handgun en-stilled goose bumps on his skin when he felt it being pressed harder and harder. He felt his hair being ripped out of his scalp, so he tried to pry away the hands on instinct but they were pinned to his sides by the brunette, one clamped down by his foot and the other squished by his knee. The brunette now straddled the blunette and his hair was once again ripped to the side exposing half of his pale ivory neck and ear. He was struck with fear and unable to move when he felt the gun being pressed up against his neck.

A muffled whimper escaped his throat and he began to shiver again, for the jacket only covered half of his body while the rest lay their bare and susceptible for any torture the brunette had in store.

"You're—" The brunette began.

"_Dead" _Johan thought. He began to cry, the fear of death was tearing his confidence apart.

"—an Oromanian?" The brunette stated half surprised. Johan could feel the metal barrel of the gun moving up from his neck to his ear, then he heard a piece of metal clatter against the metal exterior of the gun. His tag they had so kindly punctured him with was still on him, and blinking… wait blinking!

"Shit!" The brunette cursed under his breath. Johan's thumping heart just accelerated more when he saw the brunette losing his composure.

"W-what?" Johan trailed off. Breathing became harder when he felt the full weight of the other push down against him, but he also felt one of his hands being freed. The hand being crushed by his foot shifted closer to the brunette and when he slid his pant leg up he unsheathed a throwing knife.

All hell broke loose when the blade touched the blunette's ear.

"Hell no you're not cutting my ear off!" Johan thrashed underneath the brunette in hopes of getting free.

"Sit still! I'm trying to save you!"

"Gahh! No! I need that ear!"

"I'm not cutting your ear off! You're being tracked!"

"What—" Johan ceased his escape and began to hyperventilate. _"Those people are tracking me?"_

"AHH N-NO! Don't let them— ahhh! Don't wanna go—argh let go!" Johan turned paranoid that the people were right outside the door, ready to take him if he stayed pinned down any longer. His arms were unleashing a flurry of weak punches and slaps to the brunette's face, anything to obstruct his view.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LISTEN!" Johan was roughly grabbed by his chin and forced to look the brunette in the eyes. Johan's chest heaved up and down, shaking every time his chest puffed up.

"I'm not cutting your ear. I'm cutting the tracker from the marker. The marker is the one attached to your ear and the tracker is connected by a chain link. I'm cutting the chain link." The brunette spoke softly and annunciated each vowel so the petrified boy could understand. After a swift nod the other let go of the blunette and angled his knife over its target.

Johan felt a harmless tug on his ear and he saw the other pulling up a metal ball with a red blinking light.

"Kuriboh! Go hide it." The brunette cupped his hand and offered the tracker to Kuriboh. The collie bit down on it and dashed out a wall crack running out into the streets.

Both men were panting from all the excitement and the brunette didn't snap back to reality until he heard Johan clearing his throat, telling him to get off. He did so and released Johan from his crushing muscle body weight. After Johan was free he crumpled up into a ball and let out a few sobs, relieved that he wouldn't go back to that place.

"Hey, don't cry. No one is gonna take you away." The brunette placed his hand on the blunette's back and rubbed his hand back and forth till the blunette calmed down.

"Th-thank you!" Johan cried and lunged out to hug the brunette. His arms wrapped around the other's neck and he pulled himself closer to his- now two time- savior. But his happy moment was short and his hug was met with the brunette's hands pushing the kid away from him.

"Get off brat!" the brunette barked. He finally succeeded when Johan let go and scowled saying, "I'm sixteen!"

"Well I just turned nineteen so get the fuck off." And with that the brunette pushed Johan out of his very hard to attain sitting position and onto the floor face first.

"If you're this energetic then go walk yourself to bed and lay down before you kill yourself!" The brunette harshly pointed his finger at the bed of cardboard boxes and glared.

"What ever… drill sergeant." Johan spat under his breath. He barely picked himself up when he glanced over and saw the brunette's glare softening and becoming spaced out along with his straight arm beginning to lose its tensed form, changing into a v shape.

"I was just kidding about that… sorry." Johan apologized, still having a tough time picking himself up. The brunette snapped out of his daze when he saw  
>Johan once again struggling.<p>

"You are helpless." He teased, already stepping down to help him.

"No!... I got this… you have already helped me enough. I need to do things by myself." Johan fell down while proclaiming this, which made him look even more incapable.

"_He's like Jehu… different…" _The brunette pondered. "What ever, go ahead and struggle. I'm gonna make something to eat." The teen shrugged his shoulders turning his back and waved at Johan half-heartedly. He began to rummage through his backpack again taking out a few cups and partial melted spoons, forks with two prongs and knifes too sharp for people to use on food.

"So… why Hane (winged) Kuriboh?" Johan asked, feeling awkward with the silence.

"My old friend from—a friend called him that because of his three legs. It's basically a joke but it grew on me, so now we call him that." The brunette froze in his little anecdote. He just told something personal to this weird Oromanian.

"_It feels like I've met him before…"_

With in a few minutes the brunette had started a fire, began cooking and set the broken table and Johan… he had managed to get up a little more than half way, till he fell again in the same spot.

The brunette teen perked his head up and quietly shuffled to the crack where Hane Kuriboh left. He bent down placing his finger on his lips, telling the teal haired teen to shut it.

Seconds later Johan could hear Hane Kuriboh howling in the distance and as he got closer you could hear his uneven running style and panting. The moment Hane Kuriboh poked his head through the door the brunette tackled the dog to the floor wrestling with him.

"Gotcha! Point, me!" The brunette released the squirming dog and waved his finger lecturing, "You need to be more careful." In response the collie snorted and kicked up dirt on the brunette like he was a cat scraping litter to the other side of his box.

"Awww~ sore loser." The brunette ruffled the fur atop the dog's head extra hard causing the dog to lose his front balance and stumble forward to the ground. A low growl bubbled in the pit of the collie's gut then he jumped up at Judai and licked his face sending the teen jerking away from his nasty breath.

"That's sick Hane Kuriboh!" the brunette laughed. He laughed… that's a first Johan thought.

"_They're just like a family…" _Johan sighed, averting his gaze from the thing he had lost. _"I wonder what happened to that girl… Asuka… and what about Oroman or… Yusei." _All of this thinking made his lips sink into an unintended frown. He lowered his head and sadly smiled at the ground he sat on. He heaved out another sigh he looked at the box bed and began to crawl instead of walk.

"_Well I guess you have to crawl before you can walk." _His wrists still stung when he applied pressure but the pain could wait. His situation was still in the toilet, well with him still being half dressed and on the opposite side of the world, on his home country's enemy land.

"Hey!" The call jolted Johan from his depressing thoughts and he peered up at the brunette teen.

"Get over here and eat." The other teen pointed to the stool next to him. The table had two bowls of something hot from the steam coming off of them and some sort of brown thing next to it.

"What do you not eat food at tables in Oroman?" The teen asked sarcastically, still not entirely sure if his comment should be sarcastic, what if they didn't have tables?

"Sorry."

"Stop apologizing!"

"Why?" He asked as he finished his crawling journey to the table. He was able to straddle the stool and find a safe balance to start eating.

"Why are you asking why?" He questioned his question with a question.

"I am asking why should I stop apologizing?" Johan asked innocently with he eyeballs wide and trained on the brunette.

"Don't try to think how I think." Judai huffed and plunked down on his stool.

"Well you are an Alran… and if im gonna be stuck here for awhile then I should know how you guys are." Johan explained folding his fingers in and resting on top of them.

"Don't be so open minded, brat. You're gonna die like that." Judai spat back taking a bite of the brown thing that was a grain bar.

"You can open the mind of another unless you yourself has an open mind." The brunette stopped eating and stared at the blue haired teen like he was a new kind of human. "I have something I need to do and I need all the help I can get." The blunette's face shown with determination and his lips were quirked into a small smirk. The two continued to gaze at each other, leaving their food untouched despite their rumbling stomachs.

The staring contest stopped when the brunette teen laughed, "Weird Oromanian."

"Do you hate us?" Johan asked, picking up his single-pronged spork, eyeballing it with suspicion.

"Who? Oromanians?" The other teen's question was met with a head bob. The brunette took a sip of his stew, put his spoon down and readied himself for a real conversation and not just some small dinner chat.

"Oroman started this war." The brunette retorted.

"So because our king declared war, you choose to hate its citizens?" Johan questioned.

"You worship and follow him, fight for him and not along side him, you deserve it." His response was cold and frank.

"But not all of us worship him. Most people scorn him. He forces our people to fight with a draft and he raises taxes and reduces the goods he distributes to us." Johan scowled down at the table and clenched his fingers that were tangled together, so tight his knuckles turned white.

The other stared and analyzed his reaction. "Do you? Do you hate him?"

A quick laugh snorted through his nose and his tight lipped expression turned into one of subtle malice, hid by a smile, "Very much so. He should be de-throned, but thoughts like that get you killed."

"That sucks." The brunette picked up his spoon and took another sip. He peeked up and saw the Oromanian boy making a sour face after his first sip.

"_Pampered Oromanian." _The brunette thought, scowling at the brat.

"Yah~! Hot!" Johan whined, he stuck his tongue out and lightly bit down on it with his tongue to cope with the pain. "Sorry didn't know it was that hot, but its still good." The boy took a bite of the grain bar and chewed it with a gleeful expression.

"This is the first time in a while that someone has made a meal for me so I'm really happy… and uh, thank you." A light pink blush highlighted his cheeks and his face was smile in giddiness.

"You're definitely different, kid." The brunette laughed. He stretched out his hand in front of Johan and said, "Name's Judai."


	5. Chapter 5

**OKAY! I have finally found time to get to a computer *****silently cursing school***** Finals are done and summer is here so I can type all I want! **

**So this chapter may be a long one cause I write the story in school but can never type it.**

**BTW: dropping some major hints in this chapter… so if you do figure some stuff out try not to spoil it :)**

**Oh and Jehu and Haou are here! YAY!**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
><strong>

Chapter 5 – Can I Stay?

"…Judai?"

"What?"

"Its dark…"

"Duh."

"Can… can we turn on a light?"

"Do you think I have electricity Oromanian brat!"

"Sorry… … Can we light a lamp?"

"Go to sleep!"

"But I'm scared**…"**

…

"Just go to sleep next to Kuriboh." Judai rolled over on his flattened box and shifted his jacket so that the fabric just covered the top of his shoulders. He let his eyes flutter shut but shortly after he opened one of them in suspicion because of some shifting noises he heard. He quietly slid his hand, fingers brushing over the handle of his gun that was still tucked into his pants. He was ready to lurch out at the sound but he felt a warm back push up to his. It snuggled deeper squirming to get as close as it could to Judai. The back was comforting and relieved Judai of his tense muscles, but the brunette could tell that it was shaking.

"Johan?"

"I just… I just need to know that someone is here, with me…" Johan curled his legs closer to his chest and pushed further back to Judai. An overly audible sigh flowed out of Judai's lungs and his body relaxed from its killer mode.

"You can sleep here if you are quiet." He told the blunette releasing another sigh.

"Sorry."

"I said be quiet. We can talk in the morning." He felt the blunette's head snuggle closer, closer to his and after six more times of shifting his position he finally felt the teen go to sleep.

"_I'm letting him get too close… this has to end."_

~ Morning~

"GAAHH! JUDAI PLEASE!" Johan yelped. The blunette teen had just escaped his fifth grab by Judai and was now currently dodging another.

"You need to get out and go find your own place!" Judai yelled at him. Johan turned and ran back towards another corner of the house but Judai caught his foot sending the blunette to the ground face first. The brunette dragged him back towards himself and before Johan could make one final attempt to escape Judai hoist him up over his shoulder and clasped his feet together with his free hand. The position Johan was in right now was similar to his first encounter with the Alrans so he froze up, muscles shaking violently and his finger digging into Judai back for him to keep holding onto him and he hoped that there wouldn't be any Alran soldiers outside. Before he could plead to the brunette to let him stay longer he was harshly dropped onto the ground outside.

Johan flung his hands over his head and curled into an upright ball thinking that Judai had sold him out to the soldiers. The blunette lay there paralyzed afraid that if he dropped one of his arms he would be harshly attacked or locked away into another dark place to be shipped off somewhere else. But nothing came.

"Go find yourself your own hiding spot and beg for some food." Judai turned around with Hane Kuriboh tailing him and he went back inside his safe hut.

Johan peered out from a slit in his elbow and didn't see any "danger" around him. He slowly uncoiled himself from his fetal position and looked around. To his surprise there weren't any rubble-made buildings around him. There were patches of dead grass crusted with the morning's frost that surrounded a small half built house. It was leaning against a large boulder about double the size of the make shift hut that was made from four or so boards of wood. Each board was like a wall to the house and there was only a small cut out window at the top for sunlight.

The blunette turned around and about a mile or so down the hill he could see the town where Judai found him, only now it looked like a pile of ants from the distance he was at. And even further behind the town he could see a tall towering building.

"_Military? Are we that close?"_

The blunette picked his self up; his legs were once again strong enough to carry the rest of his body. He dusted off the military jacket Judai had given him the other night. The jacket was particularly comfortable because most of it was a rough nylon material, but the inside was still enough to keep him warm.

"_Now what…?"_ Johan walked around to the side of the house and in the very very very far distance he could make out another tower.

"_What the hell is with these people! The military is EVERYWHERE!" _The blunette's eyes were wide, how could there be two towers in less than a few miles from each other? Where were the cities, houses, and grass! Suddenly the immense military power seemed un important when he heard the door to Judai's house open. He trotted back to the front and started walking after Judai and Hane Kuriboh.

"What are you doing, brat?" Judai asked but didn't stop to turn and face him.

"Walking." Johan replied naively, head slightly tilted to the side in honest confusion.

Judai halted abruptly and spun around pointing his index finger in Johan's face yelling, "Duh dip shit, what are you doing following me?"

The blunette froze, hands up and both eyes crossed forward staring at the brunette's withdrawing finger.

"Well you helped me and—" Johan stuttered, "That doesn't mean anything! It was one time! IT'S EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!" Judai straightened his jacket and turned around resuming his walk into town.

"_What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I getting so worked up over this idiot?"_ Judai mentally slapped himself, and reminded his temper to cool down.

"Wait! Maybe we can change that! I-I can help you, I mean, I'll pull my weight and—" Johan stopped himself from talking this time when he saw Judai whip out his hand gun.

"Stop following me or I will blow your head off, and you can die now instead of tomorrow." Judai threat was calm yet painful to hear, his once warming chocolate eyes bore into Johan's heart and shook his inner confidence. The brunette stayed like that holding his ground and waiting for the blunette to walk off and find another person to follow, but he didn't. He did the opposite.

Johan, terrified yet determined, walked right up so that the barrel of the gun was resting on his neck. Judai didn't give in, he predicted it was a bluff so he kept scowling at the teen who was only pushing even harder into the barrel.

"Do you wanna die now?" Judai hissed, cocking back the gun and preparing the first bullet to be fired. It was like Johan became a whole other person. His body was free from all trembling and fidgeting. His emerald orbs transfixed on Judai's mentally pushing back the brunette. Judai was stunned when he saw the resolution in his eyes.

"You won't shoot." Johan smirked; he wrapped one of his hands around the cold metal of the gun and pulled it down to his heart. He looked back up at Judai and gave him another one of his determined looks.

"What makes you think I won't—" "Because you didn't shoot those guys in the alley." Johan interrupted; he was confident but now Judai saw through his little minute long charade, he could see his knees wobbling.

The two stayed like that for minutes, both waiting for the other to back off with their tail between their legs. Judai never once readjusted his position, didn't swallow, didn't flinch, and to Johan it seemed like he didn't even blink. The blunette on the other hand was loosing his grip by the third minute with shifting his weight every ten seconds. His arm began to hurt, his bloodied wrist now exposed to the cold was screaming, wailing at him to cover it.

"_This kid is good." _Judai smirked and after an intense stare off Judai huffed a fake sigh of defeat.

"Do what you want." Judai gave the boy an amused smile when he saw Johan finally showing his true colors; he was shaking and staring face at the ground mentally shouting _"Oh my god oh my god! Johan what the hell did you just do! I think he is right, I wanna die, but I don't… but I almost did… what if I did? AHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

Judai let out a small chuckle and slapped Johan on the back saying, "Come on, you gonna stalk me or what?"

Johan perked up his head, cheeks covered with a faint layer of pink. The blunette quickly realized Judai wasn't waiting, so he trotted after him with a huge goofy smile stretched across his face from his current victory. Johan-1 Judai –zip!

"If you smile like that you are going to die." Judai grumbled flashing Johan a death-glare. The blunette's smile shied away but not enough for it to completely disappear because Judai could still see his giddy smile wanting to return

"_Stupid kid."_ Judai chuckled.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

They had made their way to the entrance of the town and before Johan could walk any further his jacket was ripped off of him, exposing his pale bruised skin to the world. The frigid air blew against his goose bumped skin, his arms quickly wrapped around him becoming his makeshift coat before another was placed on him. It was Judai's.

Johan grabbed at the coat wrapping it more soundly on him and turned around. He saw Judai putting on the military jacket. The blunette hesitantly did the same slowly lacing his arms through Judai's coat. He finally got the message to speed up when Judai flashed him a 'what the hell is taking so long' look.

The maroon coat may have looked crappy and covered in dirt on the outside but the inside was lined with a fluffy material that made the military jacket seem like a scratchy brillo pad. Johan buried his chin in the collar and huffed out warm air enclosing the heat in the jacket and replacing the heat he lost while putting on the jacket. Judai didn't see him but he was also secretly taking in the odd scent of Judai. Before he knew it Judai was right up on him running his hands over the jacket and brushing off dirt and rubble. The brunette grasped the hood and flipped it over Johan's head before fingering Johan's earpiece. The blunette held his breath; his heart racing from how close his savior/crush was to him. It was getting even more difficult to hide his excitement when he felt Judai twirling a lock of his hair.

"You stand out too much…" Judai whispered. The brunette's eyes were first trained on the mysterious, yet familiar blue hair and then they slowly trailed up to meet Johan's. The Oromanian's eyes were vibrant cerulean in most of his iris with hints of emerald flecked around his pupil. The brunette's breath was taken away, in a matter of days this boy has already talked to him more than one of his relatives and in a matter of seconds his eyes had captured his undivided attention. Judai pulled himself out of the mesmerizing blue flame and turned around to leave, relieving Johan of his unknown torture and allowing him to breathe once again.

The huffing blunette trotted after Judai and he was silently thanking the cold for turning everyone's cheeks red so that his blush wouldn't stand out.

From what Johan could remember there were about seven buildings still intact: a roof, a door and windows. He didn't see the slightest bit of greenery and was already beginning to miss the obnoxious flowers in Oroman. About every five minutes he would hear a scream or a gunshot from somewhere in the distance and that only made him grip tighter onto Judai's coat.

Hane Kuriboh paced around the two because they walked too slow for him and his three legs. Occasionally he would stop to sniff out a near by garbage can but only until he heard his master calling for him to get going.

Judai on the other hand was about ten seconds from turning around and slapping Johan. He wouldn't stop grabbing his coat. He couldn't move fast enough with this kid tied to him, what if there was an attacker? They would both be dead in an instant. He only hoped that Haou's shop would move towards him instead of just taunting him by sitting where it is.

The next five minutes were hell for the two humans but Kuriboh was having a ball!

A long sigh of relief escaped Judai's lips when he saw the door to Haou's place. The only bad part about the condition of Haou's shop was that it was crawling with Alrans and a few military men right outside the door.

"Okay you stay here and wait." Judai tore Johan from his coat and pointed next to the door. "Hane Kuriboh, watch him." Judai casually marched up the steps, but not before glaring at Johan to remind him to stay.

Johan, at the last minute, lunged out and caught Judai coat once again. "I… I don't think its… s-safe…" Johan's mumbles of fear fell even softer than a whisper, but Judai could still hear him.

"My god, you're fine. You re outside of Haou's place, that's like the safest place to be… " Judai's voice trailed off as he opened the door and stepped inside, slamming it shut behind him.

The blunette sat down against the stairs after several minutes and attempted to calm his nerves. He couldn't stop averting his gaze from every thug that smirked at him. He swallowed about four times every thirty seconds and his hands wouldn't stop rubbing each other. His panic attack would have continued if not for Hane Kuriboh who nudged his hand and rubbed his head upward moving his whole entire arm up.

Johan looked down at Hane Kuriboh and the dog's little comfort attempt allowed Johan to calm down. He took a deep breath and stopped fidgeting. He began to scratch and rub the dog's head at a soothing pace. His worry-stricken face eased back down to his normal calm lay back disposition. This may have been the first time he finally got a hold of himself since the attack.

During the night he couldn't stop picturing the destruction of the buildings, the fire, or the dead bodies that he saw during the attack. And finally once his body had forced him to close his eyes he would dream once again of falling into the water and dying from drowning; although, every time when he woke up, ready to scream and give up, he felt Judai beside him and he was able to get a grip on reality.

"_I need to calm down… I haven't been able to think straight." _Johan mentally thought rubbing away the tiredness of his eyes. _"I am really… really lucky – no – blessed to be with Judai… … He really knows how to survive here, and he is really street smart, capable, he is helpful and hot and …"_ Johan's faced flush a deeper shade of red than his frosted rosy cheeks. Luck had never really been with him until he met this brunette and boy did he get lucky… The only bad part was his quick temper and laconic replies.

"_With him next to me, I really want to strive to be like him. Wow that's kind of embarrassing… He knows how to stay calm and even though he won't admit it, he wants to help people. He helped me (a lot) and he helps Hane Kuriboh everyday, I mean who here in this country would want a three legged dog?" _Johan grinned even wider just thinking about if the two of them could continue to stay like this until—

"YOU BRAT!" Johan's head jerked, mind already processing that it was someone yelling at him but it was a kid being thrown against one of the rubble walls. Several other men began to hover around him. After more shouting and threats the first punch was thrown at the kid and an all out street fight broke out, seven to one.

"Hey!" Johan called out, it was directed to the military men standing and watching the fight, but none of them even reacted to Johan's call. All of them had smug smiles on their faces as they watched the defenseless kid get beat half to death.

"_Where are the police? Why isn't the military helping! What the hell is going on!"_

Without a second thought Johan sprang from his spot and bolted straight into the fray. His first attempt to get a man off was like the equivalent of asking him to please stop. Johan stepped back and secured his hood then dove right back in at the first man he encountered.

"Leave him alone!" Johan peeled off one of the men lining the outside of the fight circle. He stuck his arm out to reach for the bloodied kid, about age ten, but was yanked back by his arm, nearly dislocating it, and back out into the street. With out a chance for his vision to readjust he was roughly punched and thrust to the ground. His hood now only half covering his bright teal hair but still covering his ear tag.

The fight was still progressing but he could see two guys about ready to beat the shit out of him. Johan bit his lip but held back his fear. He got back up and dodged the first blow directed towards him. Johan crouched low to the floor and sprung back up around the second man swerving to his side in a swift juke so that he was once again right outside of the fight circle. Johan pulled a cheap shot and struck the back of one of the man's knee. The attacker collapsed to the ground and Johan jumped over him going straight to where the boy was.

"ENOUGH!" Johan guarded the boy with his own body and glared back up at the main attacker who started the fight. His naïve act of bravery earned him some chuckles and smirks, but that didn't make him change his mind on helping the kid.

One of the men swung his foot round to the side of Johan's face but before it could connect a hand stopped it dead in its track.

Johan had already braced his face for impact and clamped his eyes shut, squeezing the unconscious kid closer to him, but when he didn't feel the blow he peeked out to see what happened. He could have sworn he saw a twin because the man had a similar hairstyle but it was dark teal. The stranger had single handedly flipped the oversized thug on his back and dealt a knock out blow to his head.

When the stranger turned around and offered a hand to the blunette that was when Johan got a glance at his intimidating orange orbs. Johan was stunned by the sheer color of his eyes let alone the look on the stranger's face. He was so taken back by the sight of the look-alike that without thinking he took hold of the stranger's hand and pulled himself up. The stranger took hold of the kid and set him down back where the military men were standing and sarcastically teased, "The fights to tough for you isn't it." There was now an ominous silence as a cold war began between the dark blunette and one of the soldiers. The dark blunette folded his arms and smirked waiting for the man to make a move.

"Hey… um—" Johan was about to speak but he felt his shoulder being yanked backwards and dragged off somewhere else. He turned and saw a brunette similar to Judai doing the yanking and a pissed off Judai standing and scowling in the doorway to the shop he had just entered.

"Jehu~ Be nice to them~!" Johan heard the other brunette saying, waving his hand like a squealing cheerleader and smiling a wide cheesy grin.

The last glance he got was of the stranger taking down every man in the street one by one with ease.

The man dragging him threw him into his shop and before he could get up he was already getting an ear full from Judai.

"WHAT THE HELL DUMBASS! DON'T BE A HERO!" Judai severely scolded the silent blunette before Johan came back with, "WELL WHY NOT ME! NOBODY ELSE WAS HELPING THAT KID!" Johan lifted himself from the ground and got up in Judai's face.

"AND WHAT THE HELL CAN YOU DO HUH?" Judai pushed him back down and glared waiting for an answer.

"ANYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER THAN SITTING THERE AND WATCHING THAT!" Johan screamed once again coming up from the floor.

"Oh anything huh? How about getting beat to death or oh wait, how about getting gang raped… AGAIN?" The comment struck Johan in the heart and he shut up right there regretting starting a fight he was destined to lose from the beginning.

He knew Judai was right but he didn't want to sit there and watch. Johan stood all the way up and shyly said, "I'm sorry… … you're right. I wont do that again unless I have help."

"_That was stupid… and impulsive and what the hell was I thinking about not getting Judai!" _Johan was mentally slapping himself over and over again but his face on the outside was still hidden away and shameful. Before Judai could acknowledge his apology the stranger came in.

"Jehu-chan you were sooo cruel to those men~" The Judai twin teased. The brunette practically skipped over to Jehu and began petting his head like a dog.

"Haou one day he is gonna kill you, look how much taller he is." Judai chuckled musing at the difference in their heights. Haou, keeping his head on Jehu's head, peeked up to see the difference. Jehu was more than half a head taller than Haou.

"Awww don't say that Ju-chan, my little Jehu would never hurt me… His leash is too tight." Haou pulled down Jehu's head so that he was taller than Jehu. The brunette swirled his fingertips around Jehu's neck and hovered over his throat for a second, flashing a playful smirk before giving the man one last pet.

"Cut it out Haou." Jehu smacked his hand away and walked over towards a health bench, he began to cover the examination table with a towel.

"Awwww~ thank you for setting up~ See his master doesn't even need to tell him what to do… So what's the little boy's name?" Haou pulled Johan over to the table, Johan's feet dragging and tripping over each other from how quick the tiny guy pulled him. Haou hoisted him up with ease. Despite Haou being shorter he still had the strength of someone like Judai.

Haou held Johan up with his arms under Johan's. He smiled up at him before he noticed the ear tag. With out warning Haou almost dropped him to the ground and called for Jehu.

"Take him up stairs to get him some better clothes or he is gonna freeze to death in this winter." Haou traded places with Jehu and pulled out a stool to sit on over where Judai was. Jehu leaded Johan to the base of the steps and before he started to go up he caught a glance at Haou. His golden eyes glared at Jehu prompting him to get a move on before he kicked his ass all the way up stairs by his self.

Once the two blunette's were upstairs and out of ear shot, Haou's playful side seemed almost impossible for him to have with the cold stare that occupied his face. He motioned for Judai to sit down and Judai knew what was coming.

"What the hell are you doing with an Oromanian captive?"

"You are going to need pants, go ahead and pick out a color." Jehu tossed the Oromanian a few pairs of pants and turned back to Haou's immense inventory of clothes.

He had shorts and pants and boxers and overcoats and socks and underwear and headbands and hats and shoes of all sorts.

"Geez you'd think he would try to make a buck or two off of these instead of collecting them like a pack rat." Jehu pulled up another shirt, a white one that was still untainted by nasty stains; it was long sleeved with a collar at the top that had string at the nip of his neck to secure the shirt. It was slightly baggy but the fabric was pretty thick. The sleeves at the end bulged out just the slightest to make subtle ruffles. It was about to be the thirteenth shirt Johan would try on because all the others were either too small or way too big.

Jehu tossed the boy the shirt and he nuzzled his head though the bottom and up through the top. He pulled his lanky arms through the sleeves and smoothed the wrinkly shirt over his body, checking to see if it fit.

"This, one is good… but wont it get dirty?" Johan quirked an eyebrow at Jehu, still flattening the annoying wrinkles.

"Any shirt will get dirty regardless… I guess it's whether you stand out or not…" Jehu's voice trailed off, his mind wandering back to finding another shirt of the same size.

The two had no luck in finding another shirt, so they went with the white one. Johan found a pair of black pants that fit him, the only down side was there was a hole in one of the knees. He took a patched up grey scarf to warm his neck and a beanie for his head. Jehu pulled out the jacket they had left but none of them were technically a full jacket. There were ones with backs missing, entire sleeves hacked off and others that were just half of a jacket. After a while Jehu just ripped the remaining sleeve off of an old dark sea green jacket and gave it to Johan as a vest. The dark blunette seemed to be done clothes shopping…

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

…Meanwhile…

"What the hell are you doing with an Oromanian captive?" Haou stared Judai down, catching him off guard and making the brunette falter in his collective and calm look. Haou could see the worry in Judai's eyes, the way the brunette was searching his mind for an excuse but still trying to keep him self together.

"Haou come on—"

"What the hell are you doing Judai! Keeping an Oro! That's – that's like the second worse thing you can do in this country! Wh-what the hell man! Why—"

"Haou, you don't understand! This kid… I don't know but there's something about him… he isn't like the others and…" Judai stopped talking mouth slightly ajar just remembering all the weird yet different things Johan has said and done.

"You know he is nothing but trouble. Do you know who is already looking for you!" Haou was on his feet, hands on the table yelling at Judai's stupidity because he is not really ever stupid.

"I know I know… … just drop it or do we need to talk about your previous stupidity?" Judai smirked knowing he had regained the higher ground in the fight with his own little secret… and it got to Haou because he shut up right away and sat down hiding his head behind a propped up elbow.

"Ah ha! Now shut it, Haou-chan~~~!" Judai mocked Haou's earlier attitude with his tone and facial language.

"So I guess this means you aren't coming back this time, huh? Our leave ends in another week." Haou muttered under his breath in the crook of his elbow. His golden eyes rolled up to their corners and looked at Judai for his answer.

"What the hell do you think the answer is, its 'no' and you can report that to him too." Judai answered curtly. Now both of the brunettes were slumped over with an imaginary rain cloud pouring over their somewhat good mood.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

~Back upstairs~

Johan finished dressing and when he came to see Jehu again he saw that the dark blunette had brought the same examination table upstairs.

"Uh… did you… bring that upstairs…?" Johan asked while gawking at the table and the size of it and how the heck he brought that upstairs!

"Yeah… what you jealous?" Jehu smirked, playing with Johan just to get a tease out of him.

"Well… its really impressive and I that would be cool if I could lift that… but I don't know if I'm jealous. I have a lot of other qualities that I think make up for it and I'm grateful for those things." Johan smiled at himself and his words filled himself with a flittering feeling of inner confidence.

Johan felt awkward in the new silence and looked up to see Jehu half smirking half smiling at him.

"Just come over here and sit." Jehu patted the table motioning for Johan to come over.

Johan walked over and hopped up like he was at a doctor's office in Oroman. Jehu opened a lower drawer and pulled out an antiseptic spray.

"Roll up your sleeves." Johan knew what was coming. His wrists. When he rolled up his white sleeves he cold see some pink specks from where the dried blood rubbed off. Johan had to hold back the urge to hurl when he saw the grody mess of what his wrists had become.

"How the hell have these not been infected and why the hell has Judai not done anything?" Jehu mumbled while wiping off the first layer or nastiness.

"Well he is doing something now and—" Johan's eyes traveled up towards Jehu's face and just out of the corner of his gaze he saw a hole cut out of his ear, the same ear as Johan's where the Alran tracker was.

"Jehu… are you… an Oromanian?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Cliffie! **

**Well I didn't get a chance to type all I had written but I will be back soon cause its summer! So I guess I will give you guys a…**

**PREVIEW**

"**Are you an Oromanian?"**

"**yeah so?"**

"**Just don't judge him too much…"**

"**That blue haired Oro is gonna die"**

"**H-hane Kuriboh…don't-don't do this… don't die…"**

**Johan continues with Judai but what will happen to the two now that the military is searching not only for Johan but Judai as well?**

Thanks to…

MistressChi08

JudaiXJohan

Yaoifangirl2005

Jinmay1230

Blood Thirsty Angel

jhayride

KekiAiKohi

yukiandkyo

Bloody moon cat

Risa Andersen Yuki

ThePathUntaken

JudaiLover74

animebloodraven

Monkey Girl 13624

Running Through Dreams

LaLaLandx3

CrazySpiritFan

Death151


	6. Chapter 6

**Ok so if no one has heard yet, fanfic is making a new rating system where there is no M rating. Quite a few of my favorite authors have packed up their (super awesome) stories and are saying they don't want their account to be deleted by the new rating system. I am still going to be posting my stories I will I guess warn people in advance what the content will contain. And if my account is deleted I will either make another one or go to DA or something like that.**

**There is a petition going around. Go to and I think type in fan fiction and it should be the one with a lot of signatures.**

**Warning: Yaoi / Shonen Ai… Boy x boy**

**This chapter will be rated T: Language and slight violence**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Oroman Wars

Chapter 6 – Family…?

"_How the hell have these not been infected and why the hell has Judai not done anything?" Jehu mumbled while wiping off the first layer or nastiness._

"_Well he is doing something now and—" Johan's eyes traveled up towards Jehu's face and just out of the corner of his gaze he saw a hole cut out of his ear, the same ear as Johan's where the Alran tracker was._

"_Jehu… are you… an Oromanian?"_

Jehu stopped wiping away the crusted blood but didn't dare move his eyes to look at Johan. _"Damn it…" _Jehu cursed in his mind. He remembered how Haou always told him they would both be (worse) than dead if anyone found out if Jehu was an Oro… it would be even more disastrous if Haou was caught sheltering one!

Johan remained transfixed on the hole in Jehu's ear, his free hand reaching up to touch his metal clip that he wore. He could see the very carefully hidden inner panic being bottled up inside Jehu. The dark blunette's muscles tense breath unnoticeably quiet not wanting to be heard, and he wasn't making any eye contact to deny the fact.

"_Shit… now what?! Haou gonna kill me. … Okay just don't say— … This sucks, what if he tells?" _

"Yeah so what if I am?" Jehu raised his head just slightly enough so that his amber orbs glared into Johan's dumbfounded stare.

"Why are you living here? How did you get here?! Are you trying to get back?! How long have you—!" Johan kept asking his questions faster than the first, stumbling over his syllables so that some of the words fused into each other.

Jehu clenched down on Johan's wrist and took hold of his other one pinning the petrified boy back against the wall with unreal strength. Johan's hands pinned down by his sides so that his face didn't have any cover to hide. Jehu's fingers curled around Johan's tight enough to keep him pinned down and enough to instill fear into him, so much that he couldn't think to move.

"Just shut up. It doesn't concern you." His grip tightened causing Johan to flinch and draw back farther against the wall in an attempt to get away. Johan's eyes were wide with fear as he absorbed the threat. "If I told you, then you would probably die or at least have a target placed on you… so be quiet about it."

Jehu glowered at Johan using fear to seal the subject and after another few moments Jehu released his death grip and backed off, eyes still fixed on the blunette making sure he didn't think it was some joke, leaving Johan still in his same position, scared stiff and un-wanting to move forward.

Jehu looked back on the kid, _"Shit, now he's too fucking scared to even move! … What the hell did I do…* __sigh*__ that was a bit much. God damn it!"_

"Hey!" Jehu called out to Johan to bring him out of his frozen state. "There are a lot of other scarier things than me so get it together." Johan was able to bring himself back up into a regular sitting position slowly but he kept his line of sight far from Jehu and his intimidating orange eyes.

Jehu sighed, his hand rubbing the bridge of his nose in agitation. "Listen, kid… or what was it… Johan."

The blunette bit down on his lip and gathered the courage to glance up at Jehu just only so that he could peek out from under his bangs.

"Look, I'm not Mr. Comfy-take care of some brat- kind of guy, but if you've got Judai taking care of you then you should be perfectly fine." Jehu crossed his arms debating if he knew another encouraging thing to say but none came to mind. Johan's interest was piqued at the comment Jehu made, but he still didn't look at the man full on.

"Questions aren't the best thing to ask here in Alroh but… … I've been here for four years and…" Jehu seriously doubted that he should be telling the blunette this but then again whom would he tell because Judai already knew. I lived an Oromanian port city and our town was raided in a surprise attack. Oroman isn't winning the war like the news says we are. It's pretty even right now… Well, that's when I was brought here. I found Haou—" Jehu blushed slightly at the memory of their first meet but quickly ended his story with, "—that's how Haou and I met, that how I met Judai end of story." Jehu could feel his hands acting awkward not knowing where to put them so he resumed his previous cleaning. Johan put up little to no protest and after one or two flinches he listened to the rest of Jehu's advice.

"I had Haou and you've got Judai… I've seen him in action and he knows what he's doing and how to take care of others. If you hold onto him tight enough, he'll keep you alive till… till even the end of this war." Jehu smirked at his 'end-of-the-war' comment, as if that was gonna happen anytime soon.

"But I was being serious about keeping your mouth shut, I've seen what they do to people- both Alrans and Oros- and its not pretty." Jehu finished his disinfecting and began to wrap the teen's wrists with some white gauze.

"Th-thank you, Jehu… Judai isn't one to talk so… actually hearing someone speak this long is kind of comforting. But can I ask one last question…?" Johan waited for Jehu to finish wrapping his second wrist. When he was finished the older Oromanian looked at the younger. He huffed out a sigh of defeat knowing how many questions he asked Haou when he was first brought to Alroh and gave Johan the 'ok' to ask.

"… Did you ever— have you ever thought of going back?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Jehu and Johan were walking down from the steps after their little heart to heart. Judai was at the door impatiently waiting for Johan while Haou was having too much fun spinning Hane Kuriboh in circles, tripping every so often, with an old dog toy.

"Could you stop torturing my dog!" Judai barked sending a glare Haou's way.

"But Hane Kuriboh likes it, just like his name I gave him, aww don'tchu, don'tchu." Haou started to baby talk the dog whose tongue was stuck out of the side of his mouth happily panting and waiting for Haou to play with him some more.

Judai saw that Johan was finally done and called him over, "Come on brat we're going and hurry up before Haou makes Kuriboh a two legged dog!" Johan made haste in going to where Judai was but not before he flashed a thank you smile back to Jehu. The dark blunette nodded his head as if meaning 'you're welcome'.

As soon as Johan was at Judai's side the brunette began to open to old wood door.

"Oh, and here's this to keep you warm." Judai let go of the handle and shoved a dark blue coat into Johan's hands. The blunette teen held it up in front of him and could barely believe the gift Judai gave him. It was a similar style to Judai's maroon coat but it seemed to be in better shape. Pockets still were able to hold things and there wasn't dirt all over it.

"It's Jehu's old coat." Haou chimed in. "We all got them a couple years ago, although Jehu out grew his so we got him a new one." Johan looked back at the jacket and saw the 'J' initial at the top left of the jacket. He quickly put it on, the coat matching perfectly with his scarf and beanie.

"There now you wont freeze to death and—" Judai was resuming his march out the door before Johan rushed in and gave Judai a hug from behind.

"Gah!" Judai quickly turned his body forward, sticking his arms between him and Johan trying to push away the boy's affection. "Stop hugging me, there is no hugging!" Judai ripped Johan from him but the boy was still beaming ignoring Judai's harsh tone.

"A simple 'thank you' would've sufficed." Judai scoffed, readjusting his messed up jacket.

"Thank you!" Johan yelped still stupidly smiling from being to happy to do anything else.

"Awww~ Ju-chan~ he's like your second doggie~!" Haou teased, over doing the fake smile that he was giving Judai, hands clasped together in front of his chest gawking over the sight.

"I've already got a dog! This one is the pet Oro that I have to drag around, now lets go." Judai was hiding his embarrassed blush in his perked up coat collar. He opened the door letting in the cold and hastily made his way out before he would be smothered by Johan hugs and whatever Haou could do.

Johan followed right after him still with his smile but a little more subtle. Hane Kuriboh trotted off after his master as well.

"What no 'good bye'?" Haou whined from inside the warmth of his house, his head poking out of the doorframe.

Judai stopped, turned around and waved back at his weird friend with apathetic energy, "Good bye." He said plainly. "Oh and don't be too mean to Jehu." Judai smirked.

"You know I will Ju-chan~ Oh and come back soon Jo-kun~!" Haou's teasing remarks always got everyone off their pace. Jehu nearly smacked him upside the head; slightly blushing from his stupid tease and yelling some incoherent swear words. Johan turned to Judai puzzled, "…Jo-kun?"

"Just ignore that sadistic bastard, the world messed him up long time ago." Judai joked; he brought Johan back forward and escorted him away from the busy commotion of Haou and Jehu still going at it.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
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Judai was finally able to just relax and enjoy the silence of the abandoned street the three were walking on. He decided to take the back way allowing Johan to let his hood down and enjoy the slightly cold but refreshing, brisk wind. Hane Kuriboh was leading occasionally sniffing the ground and looking back to Judai. Johan enjoyed being with the two but the silence was eating at him. He felt like making conversation but nothing he could think of would make Judai give more than a three-worded answer.

"So…" Johan tried to start something with the word.

"What?" Judai looked over, calm and not snapping at him for being stupid.

"How long have you and Haou been friends?" Johan remembered how Haou gave Hane Kuriboh his name and also how Judai said the one who named him was a good friend of his.

"Oh god, how long has it been?" Judai laughed to himself as many childhood memories came flooding in from his and Haou's friendship. His face lighting up and mouth easily forming into a smile.

"_He looks better when he smiles…" _Johan thought to himself turning pink and gazing secretively at his savior.

"I don't really think it matters how many years but the two of us have been together since I started school." Judai's face was lit up in a way Johan had never seen since he met him. Judai was definitely more to keep his real self-hidden; all he ever did was scowl at him.

"After we graduated school though… things got a bit more complicated with the war and its drafting." Judai sounded disheartened at the recollection as his smile was replaced with a sullen look.

"Oh did your fathers' get drafted?" Johan empathized, pushing for more answers and details about Judai and his past.

"No, we were drafted…? You know thirteen years old is when kids are sent to train…? Did your country not have a draft?" Judai's tone was one of pure confusion, both had only known their own countries customs and beliefs so it was really a shocker for Johan whose face was agape with disbelief.

"Thirteen?! When did you stop school?! Like ten!?" Johan stepped in front of Judai who seemed to be perfectly calm wondering why the brunette would be so young yet already joining the army.

"What?" Judai quirked an eyebrow "…Don't get me wrong but it seems you have never been in the military or any faction of it with your crap sense of street smarts and wimpy body." Judai stepped aside and in front of Johan continuing to walk on, ignoring Johan's over reactive outburst.

"Was it tough?" Johan questioned again, sounding worried.

"What do you mean? … The training school?" Judai said back but not bothering to stop and face Johan.

"That and… the battlefield… did… d-did you ever-r kill any… anyone?" Johan whispered too scared to even say what he was imagining, a thirteen-year-old out fighting for his life and killing others. The blunette stopped altogether trying to collect himself before his tears got the best of him.

Judai stopped realizing that Johan's loud, clumsy shuffling wasn't right up on his heels. When he turned around he saw Johan, burying his hands over his eyes and holding back some choked sobs.

"Hey… come on, why are you crying?" Judai whined not wanting to deal with the drama right now, not when he just got away from it * cough cough* Haou.

"W-well y-you had to g-go through th-that and— it must h-have been tough f-for you and— I'm s-sorry you had t-to go through that-t… I'm sorry…" Johan was tripping over words and wiping away his tears before he would get an earful from Judai about being a wuss and crying.

"I left before it got that far… I'm a runaway…" Judai approached Johan and lifted his head up so he could get him to stop crying. Johan shut his eyes feeling embarrassment from his sad, sorry state. His cheeks tinted with a light red and right around his eyes he still had drops of tears waiting to run down his already wet cheeks.

Judai felt his heart clench up from seeing Johan like this. He felt guilty but he was stumped of what to do. He never had to play punching bag or shoulder to cry on before so… _"… Well…"_

…

Judai eased Johan's face down as he carefully slid his arms around Johan's upper back. His gloved hands lay palm down on the smaller teen's covered shoulder blades. He let Johan snuggle his head on one of his shoulders so he could let out the rest of his tears. Judai was hesitant to embrace Johan tighter but he unconsciously found himself bringing Johan farther into him.

"_N-no wonder Judai doesn't let his guard fall… he can't trust anyone, except for Haou, Kuriboh, and Jehu…" _Johan could feel Judai pulling him into a 'once-in-a-lifetime' hug, he didn't even think twice before instinctively pushing his head down into the crook of Judai's neck, rubbing his runny nose over his coat and settling his tear streamed face on his shoulder to calm himself down.

The two stood there not one uncomfortable thought crossed either of their minds… the moment just fell into place. Both hearts were racing at the new feeling but neither feeling the need to pull away. Judai couldn't help but reach up with one of his hands, bringing it back down, and up starting a slow back rub to comfort Johan.

The blunette stepped closer to Judai and repositioned his head so the his breath tickled the brunette's neck. Judai had his mind so far gone and the one thing that brought him back - crashing hard - was Hane Kuriboh barking at them.

With one swift jerk Judai's hand-that was busy stroking Johan's back- grabbed the blunette's jacket and yanked the teen away from him.

The older teen quickly readjusted his coat and reassured, "That was a one time thing, got it!"

Johan stood there completely dumbfounded that he even got a chance to experience the other side and possibly the real side of Judai. The blunette's eyes were still red from tears (his cheeks also had there own red coat) and were wide open, the same as his mouth; Johan had stopped crying, though.

"Got it?" Judai asked again, his outer, fake personality building back up.

"Y-yeah…" Johan whispered, his breath becoming visible from the cold. The blunette was slowly coming down from cloud nine but Judai naturally wasn't waiting for him because he had already started to walk.

"Stop getting all teary, or smiley or whatever, and no more sobbing over my past. Everyone has had their own ups and downs in their life." Judai walked off once again calling Hane Kuriboh to his side.

"Hurry up!" Judai called out. "Hane Kuriboh is gonna beat you!" Johan still stood there, feet glued to the ground but eventually snapped back into reality and followed after the two.

Both Judai and Hane Kuriboh were walking side by side. Johan couldn't help but notice their invisible bond; the way Judai always made sure Hane Kuriboh was with him. Judai always seemed to hide his weaknesses, friends, and affections. The two of them seemed to be like a strict master and a cripple dog following him around but there was something… Judai always seemed to deny that he helps other but—

"Rawf! Grrrarf! Arrf!" Hane Kuriboh hair stuck up on his hackle and his lips curled back revealing his yellow-coated teeth. Johan didn't have any time to ask any questions before Judai snatched his arm and drew him into the first alleyway he saw. He threw his back to the old brick wall and held Johan tight in front of him. Both hands were firmly holding the boy tightly against his chest so that he couldn't be seen from the main roadway. Johan was about to speak but a hand covered his mouth instantly reducing his ability to breathe. Johan fought back, fear gripping his inner memories and bringing them back out. The abduction from Oroman, being tied up and shipped away in total darkness, seconds from drowning—

"...-.-…-.-." Johan's panicking stopped when he heard distant voices drawing closer to their spot.

"…-..- That brat who got away-.-…" Johan heard one of the men say. He sounded pissed; Johan also caught the faint sounds of the men kicking over trashcans and debris as they went.

Johan could feel the even breaths of Judai's chest, how could the brunette keep calm in this situation?!

"..-.-..-! … Damn blue haired Oro!..-.-.-.-. How could ..-.-. have left him free-.-.-..- in the office!...-.-.-.-.-…-.." There was a second voice now. So there were two of them.

Johan let out a small, muffled whimper of fear knowing that the men were talking about him and they were looking for him, raring for some revenge.

"..-.-…-..—Just wait ..-..-..- we find that brat!.. ..-.-.-.-…"

"What if he is already dead! Ha ha ha ha! …-..-….-.-.-.—"

"Well if he isn't already dead he will be wishing he was!..-…-.-…-.—"

"He's not just gonna die, the colonel will make sure that he rots away slowly, tortured till he wont be able to process a single word through his mind."

"Let him be fucked half to death and left to rot, his body breaking down from all the STD's he'll contract! Ha ha ha ha!"

Johan started to cry all over again. His body trembling, every inch of him hoping the men wouldn't find them and make their threats come true.

Judai peered down at the petrified Johan. If it wasn't for his hand Johan would be a sobbing mess and would get them both found in no time flat. Judai could tell that the two men, no doubt military, were heading their way. Judai had picked the wrong hiding spot and Johan would be the one to receive the worse of the two punishments.

"_Shit!" _Judai's eyes darted from the end of the alley, everything in between and all the way to where the two men were coming from. _"Shit! Shit! Shit!"_

Judai felt the pressure now he could get out and Hane Kuriboh wouldn't be a problem seeing as he is a dog that possesses no threat-you know three legs and all- but… Johan.

"Grrrawr rawr rawr!" Judai's eyes flickered over to Hane Kuriboh's barking and saw the shadow of his dog attacking the two men.

The two teens heard whimpering, barking, yelling and at the end of the fight… gunshots.

Despite Judai's normal calm composure he flinched as both shots resounded through the air, his head came down roughly onto the top of Johan's hair seeking comfort from the horrid sounds he wished he hadn't heard. There were whimpers from Kuriboh and then shuffling of feet in the opposite direction. The men's talking faded and both the teens stood there too afraid to move out of their hiding spot to see what had unraveled in the fight with Judai's dog.

The brunette wouldn't let go of Johan, his hand still firmly placed over his mouth and his head crushing Johan.

The blunette could feel Judai's breathing speed up then slow for a second but pick back up again. He could hear Judai's rampant breathing on the edge of tears from all the times his breath hitched. The brunette was debating when he should go out and check on Hane Kuriboh but he didn't want to blow Johan's and his cover or was he just afraid of what he might find?

"_Wh-what just happened…? Is H-hane Kuriboh… alright?" _Johan was already crying from his own fear but now that Hane Kuriboh was—was… dead…?

Both listened for any other sound, something to show that Kuriboh was ok. They wanted the Border collie to come trotting up to Judai just like he always did, but nothing happened.

Minutes seemed to build together into something shorter than hours but just as painfully agonizing. Both of their feet pressed to close to the wall tingled from the oncoming sensation of falling asleep and both of their minds began to tear at their patience, their hearts telling them to go out and check on the dog but their own fear rooted them in place.

Johan felt the hand over his mouth retreat slowly and before Johan could move one step forward Judai was already out the front of the alley, running to Hane Kuriboh.

Johan ran after him and when he reached the main road he saw Judai bent over, hands wanting to touch his companion but too afraid to hurt newly created wounds. Eventually Judai convinced his hands to wrap under Kuriboh's neck, moving the K-9 closer to his chest.

Judai hugged Hane Kuriboh closer to him till he heard a sound croak out from his dog companion.

Tears of relief welled up in Judai's eyes as he gripped Kuriboh tighter. The chocolate dog began a rapid, happy pant that accompanied his slow, wagging tail seeing that his master was with him.

There was a new hole in the floor of the dirt road and another in the corner of Hane Kuriboh's ear.

The welled up water in the brunette's eyes spilled over on both cheeks just enough for a tear to roll down on both of his pink tinted cheeks. Then as if the moment was over Judai released his dog, helping him back to his feet, and stood up joking, "You don't know the difference between Heaven and Earth, dog." The brunette smirked, playing off his earlier minor breakdown and began to walk off once again calling for Hane Kuriboh to follow.

Johan stood frozen once again but this time his facial features were serene, but showed slight envy. _"They are never apart are they?…" _Johan thought.

"_They are their own family and they don't need anyone else…" _The blunette sighed fixing his hood over his head once more. _"My family was never that close… even before they passed." _Johan held back the surge of painful emotions regarding his forgotten family. The boy shut his eyes and blinked back new tears only to see Judai walking back towards him, feet moving hastily in an agitated manor. The brunette stopped in front of Johan and glared at him.

"Are you coming?" He growled staring impatiently at the teen.

Johan stared back in a temporary shock. Judai actually came back for him… He wanted him to come with him…

"…" Johan opened his mouth ever so slightly but no words came out.

Judai rolled his eyes with more emphasis than needed and grabbed Johan by his wrist, yanking him forward to get him to keep up with his brisk walk.

" Stupid slowpoke…" Judai muttered under his breath.

"_What is a slowpoke?" _Johan mentally asked. Judai never looked back or stopped to see if Johan was tripping.

Johan's dumbfounded, ajar mouth curved into a small smile. _"I guess… maybe I could be apart of this family…?" _He picked up his pace into a quick trot. His unconscious mind made his hand grab hold of Judai's so that he could feel the worn fabric of his gloves; he laced his fingers in between Judai's but only for a moment because Judai roughly snatched his hand away from Johan telling him 'hell no'.

"_Maybe something more than a family…?" _Johan giddily smiled as he saw Judai shoving his hands in his pockets.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Okay so the events were a little choppy but I wanted to write about them ^^**

**Preview! (just one word and you should know what is coming next… cough cough think of )**

… **=^.^= "Meow~"**

**If you know don't give it away in the reviews please!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Yay quicker turn around than I expected! Someone already guessed it but yes… RUBY is coming in this chapter. Its gonna be shorter because I don't want this chapter to seem choppy like the last one. **

**Warnings…**

**Yaoi/shounen ai, boy x boy, you have been warned **

**Rated: T for language (chapter is mostly for a little laughter and a break from all the serious Judai and war stuff, A change of pace. There will also be some heart felt between Judai and Johan *fluff *^^)**

**P.S. yukiandkyo is going to be making an AU of Oroman Wars so stay tuned for her story ^^**

**Be ready its 16 pages 0_0**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Oroman Wars

Chapter 7 – Can I?

The approaching darkness of night began to shroud the city in Alroh with only the rising moon to show any light. There were no street lamps around to safely guide the citizens home, like there were in Oroman. Johan was once again with in the safety of Judai and his constructed home just out of sight from the Alran city.

…

"Judai…?"

"WHAT?! STOP TALKING AND GO TO SLEEP!" Judai barked, this having been the fourth time Johan got up and attempted to talk to Judai.

"But- **mnyaaa~**"

…

"What the hell was that?" Judai groggily propped himself up glancing over at Johan through half lidded eyes. The blunette was wriggling away from Judai and holding his chest weird.

Hane Kuriboh was already awake and decided to sniff around at what was making all the noise. His attention was piqued when he caught onto an unfamiliar scent.

Hane Kuriboh jabbed his nose into Johan's neck earning a surprised yelp from the blunette. Shortly after more investigation Hane Kuriboh began barking and pawing at Johan.

Judai stumbled up from his place on the floor placing his jacket on his shoulders for warmth. He yanked Hane Kuriboh away from Johan who was still lying defenseless on the ground. He rolled Johan over and was met with the awake and alerted face of a cat.

"Joooohaaan!" Judai scolded, raising his voice as he drew out Johan name.

"Wait I can explain!" Johan waved his hands at Judai allowing the cat to shimmy out of Johan's hands.

~-Flash back-~

_The previous day when both the teens were about to leave the city limits of the Alran town, Judai stopped at something Johan thought of as a food market. Johan was told to wait outside but this time Judai actually told him his reasoning that the clerk might see Johan's ear tag. _

_Johan leaned his body against the wood boarded shop. Hane Kuriboh went in with Judai most likely for a rewarding treat after his bravery shown against the two soldiers._

"_Now that I think about it… I haven't really eaten anything since yesterday. I'm hungry~" Johan mentally whined, cupping his head with his two hands._

_The blunette glanced at the tarp door and thought for a second if he could just peek his head in and ask for a snack… "But then again Judai might get mad and give me no food." Johan sat on the ground and for a second actually debated if he should chew on something to keep his hunger at bay but a harsh crashing sound brought him out of his inner thoughts. _

"What the…?" _Johan questioned under his breath, slowly getting up from his spot on the ground, curiosity pulling him closer to the sound. _

_His head was about to peer into an alleyway before he heard another crashing sound louder than the first, jolting him from his place. His fear caused him to rush a few steps back alerting him 'HELLO DARK ALLEYS ARE NOT GOOD!'_

"meeeow, mmnyaa~" _The blunette heard quiet mewls of pain coming form the same place the crashing was._

_This time Johan stepped in front of the alley instead of shyly peeking in from the side. He made a few hesitant steps into the alley and that's when he saw her._

_There was a petite Russian Blue cat standing beside piles of thrown out food, its auburn tipped tail twitched in curiosity as its pink nose sniffed at the trash._

_Johan made another move forward, intrigued by the small feline. The blue (1) cat shifted her attention to the blunette showing its red ruby eyes._

_The cat made a retreating action but the trap caught on its back left foot stopped her from really going anywhere. Her front right foot was also slightly limp for when she stood still she lifted it in a hurt manor._

_At a closer look the cat had slits on both of her ears that nearly cut the feline's ear vertically in half, making it look like the cat had four ears._

_Johan took another clumsy step forward, making the cat draw back more. The blue cat backed next to the wall and sank to the ground in pain. The blunette tried to carefully sneak up on the cat. He felt a deep sense as though he was the one who was supposed to help this poor creature. _

_As the blunette took another step a low growl started to erupt from the injured cat. Her eyes went from curious to cold, her ears drawing back from feeling the threat of Johan, who she thought had come to hurt her._

_Johan sat down close to the defensive cat and patiently sat there until she stopped growling. He occasionally made eye contact but then would relax the cat's nerves by playing with the dirt and looking away. Slowly Johan began to move his hand, making it look like he was propping his body up, toward the neko. He would stop every once and awhile when he thought the feline was onto him, but he would shortly there after resume his advance. When he reached a good distance to have the cat sniff him he raised his hand earning him a wary glare from the neko._

_Johan pushed his luck further by reaching for the cat but not touching her quite yet. All she did was keep her stare firm, watching the teens every move._

_Finally, after a silent agreement, she lowered her head feeling safe around the boy._

_Johan brought his hand closer to her and allowed the cat to sniff him. Apparently he passed because she didn't retaliate when Johan lowered his hand onto her head. After a few rubs and soft scratches on the feline's head, the cat returned warm gestures by rubbing her head up against Johan's palm. Johan's hand trailed down her back and scratched the rump of her behind causing the neko to lower her shoulder blades and raise her backside into a high heel form._

_After her nice stretch she sprawled out on her side and began to paw at the loose strings coming from Johan's jacket. With the cat distracted Johan discretely pet the feline while moving his hand close to the trap clamped around her foot._

_Johan began to pry open the machine when the feline was growling once again. The new growling only made Johan slow his rescue mission. The distraught cat had enough and clawed Johan's hand; her two front claws gripping tightly around his hand while he free back foot drug its knives into the inside palm of his hand over and over in a kicking motion. Her fangs bit down on Johan a few times to limit his movement. All at once the cat stopped but didn't release his hand._

_Johan quietly soothed the cat repeating, _"Shhhh, its ok. I'm not gonna hurt you… shhhh." _The blunette's free hand quickly yet carefully unclamped the hind foot and tossed it away so the cat's fear wouldn't remain._

_The cat's sharp teeth retracted as well as its claws –hind and front. Instead of biting the feline gave Johan sweet, apologetic, licks where she had bit him; she licked the ripped skin and red marks from her previous attack._

_Instead of her growling she began to let out a soft purr as Johan proceeded to pet her. Their new friendship was being indulged in… that is until Judai came._

"What are you doing?" _The blue neko, alarmed, quickly nuzzled deeper into Johan and glared at the brunette._

"Well…" _Johan dipped into his mind's Rolodex of excuses but couldn't come up with one worthy enough to even try to fool Judai._

"There was this cat and I was wondering—"

"No." _Judai retorted before Johan could finish what the brunette was already thinking._

"I didn't even ask my question." _Johan fought back, but with a more polite attitude._

"Leave it, Johan. Its survival of the fittest." _Judai began taking the steps to leave when Johan came back with,_ "If its survival of the fittest then why do you have Hane Kuriboh as a pet?" _Johan's remark was bitter with a hint of anger at the recent turn of events. Johan was obviously implying the handicap of Hane Kuriboh having only three legs._

_Judai stopped walking away and turned only to glare at Johan for his out-of-line comment._

_Judai smirked and rebuked with,_ "Oh! You mean the three-legged dog who- just an hour ago- saved both our asses from being plugged full of bullets?" _Judai's mock playful attitude went back to his cold scowl, directed at Johan._

_Johan felt worse than he did when Judai called him out at Haou's shop. How could he even think of bringing Hane Kuriboh's condition into this selfish argument he started._

"… s-sorry…" _Johan just barely whispered still emotionally hurt from the guilt he was feeling._

"Leave the cat and come on." _Judai turned his back once more and was about to leave when-_

"But—"

"Johan."_ Judai sternly called his name in a form of scolding but meant to grab his attention. _"When you save a life you are expected to take care of that life. You aren't in the position to take on that responsibility… now hurry up and come."

~- Present-~

"I told you to leave the cat!" Judai groggily yelled.

"I did! But it followed me! So then I hid her in my coat from you when… we… got back… … and … … D-don't worry! Ruby is very friendly and—"

"Ruby?! You gave **it **a name?!" Judai faced palmed his self in the forehead feeling tiredness starting to come back to him. He was way too tired to deal with this now.

"So can she stay?" Johan pleaded with puppy eyes and his cutest face.

"I'm too tired right now, I'll tell you in the morning." Judai was becoming irritated that Johan still wanted to carry on with this conversation right now.

Judai lay back down but not before grumbling, "**It's **sleeping outside!" The brunette turned on his side and brought his jacket back up over his shoulders.

Johan was disheartened that Judai kept using the word 'it' to describe/name Ruby. But the blunette gave in anyways and took Ruby, his jacket and his self to the door.

Judai could hear Johan's loud footsteps shuffle across the floor- he probably wanted some sleep too- and to the door. The brunette heard the metal sheet (his door) scratch aside. _"Well at least he isn't being stubborn about this…" _Judai sighed and closed his eyes, still awake enough waiting and listening for Johan to trot back in… but he didn't.

…

…

"_That brat!" _Judai's mind seethed with anger from Johan's stubbornness.

"What are you doing?!" He called tiredly still wanting to stay in his little ball of warmth.

"You said to keep her outside and I'm the one who took her in so I am responsible." Johan called back.

"Don't use my own words against me!" Judai called back. "Now get inside!" *silence * Judai furrowed his brows, shortly after he opened his eyes wide with frustration. He slid his jacket on and loudly stomped over to the door cursing, _"God damn it!"_

Judai jerked the metal sheet to the floor to see the obstinate Johan curled up in a vertical ball, his jacket on and his freaking cat snuggled between his knee caps and his neck – almost like a scarf. Johan's cheeks were already red from the frigid weather; the brunette him self was quite awake now from the new coldness engulfing his bare feet.

Johan didn't look up to Judai or plead to come back inside, he just accepted the terms and tried his best to fall back asleep cause to him without Judai he could also be forcefully sleeping outside every night with out a coat if it weren't for Judai.

The brunette waited another moment before huffing out a sigh of defeat. "Get inside… you're gonna catch a cold, or worse." The brunette gestured inside after he helped Johan back to his feet.

"Awww~ you care about us that much?" Johan teased but still silently prayed that it was true.

"N-no! You're gonna have to have medication so that you wont die and that's a hell a lot more money than a flesh wound treatment." Judai lied.

"_Uh-huh, sure~" _Johan mentally smirked seeing right through his lie, but on the outside he was beaming.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

It was about 10 o'clock the next morning. The two teens were outside Johan arguing his case more determined than the night before with the small win Judai let him have. Inside was the Russian blue cat going about her daily cleaning, lapping her tongue over and over her blue fur that was apparently not clean despite its shine. Hane Kuriboh on the other hand was intently staring at the cat in fascination. The boarder collie was on all threes and had his head as close to the cat as possible taking in a few whiffs of the new scent.

The dog would time to time find the courage to poke his nose at the cat causing her to nearly fall to the floor. But the blue cat would always sturdy herself, give a quick glare at the dog and resume her cleaning all the way from the top.

Hane Kuriboh went in for another push when Ruby caught sight of him just before he made his move. The K-9 lowered his head and resumed staring when the neko put a paw on his nose.

… * **claws***

Ruby flexed her fore claws and ripped down on the dog's nose as she brought her claws off. Hane Kuriboh yanked his muzzle away from the cat whimpering slightly from the sharp pain. The dog's curiosity vanished and was replaced with a low growl as the cat obliviously started to groom herself once more.

Hane Kuriboh went right back up to Ruby and this time actually nudged her off her feet making the blue cat roll back onto the floor. His muzzle was pressed against her furry belly; he sniffed her nudging the unfamiliar animal some more then he licked her up near the base of her neck.

The Russian Blue let out an innocent meow gently pawing – without claws- at the large black nose. After meowing once more she licked the scraped skin of her previous sin earning a curious look from Hane Kuriboh.

The chocolate dog backed away, sitting on his two hind legs with the cat under him. His tail was energetically swaying from side to side creating a faint swishing sound on the floor. His head cocked to the side waiting for the curious little thing to do something else.

Ruby, already on her side, rolled over playfully craning her neck to the side with her the fore paws stretched upward wanting to play more. The curious K-9 lowered his nose once again, brushing past the feline's paws, and rolling her over even more by nudging her with his nose. Ruby's earlier soft purr was becoming more prominent and loud as the dog played with her more.

With all the excitement Ruby sprang from the ground and bolted around the dog, clumsily lunging up with her hurt foot again when Hane Kuriboh swiftly turned around the chase after her. Excited barks came from the boarder collie as he leapt left and right catching every clumsy juke Ruby was trying to make around him. Ruby made her way to another part of the room causing Hane Kuriboh to turn around too fast and tumble over from not enough leg support.

The blue neko stopped, sat down to give her foot a rest, when she saw her new playmate crash to the ground. She turned around still in play mode thinking it was a trick, but calmed down shortly there after when the dog was slowly trying to lift himself up. His energetic panting and tail wagging had stopped.

Ruby's tail fell to the ground and floated behind her as she padded over to Hane Kuriboh.

"**Meeew" **Ruby mewled. Hane Kuriboh had made it back up but decided to calm down, not wanting to fall once again. Instead he sat on his hind legs, which he knew he could depend on. The blue neko was disheartened at his decision to stop playing with her but she decided to follow in his suit and calm down as well.

With her tail up right and curled at the top to look like a cane, she rubbed her head on Hane Kuriboh's missing leg placing her self in the place where the limb should be. She snuggled in tighter to his chest, warming her self up with the dog's thick winter coat. Ruby's loud purring was once again starting up as she lay against the taller dog. Hane Kuriboh responded by carefully lowering him self down next to her, curling his longer body around hers.

The feline sensed her warm friend shifting and popped her head up playfully to see what was happening. She saw the boarder collie huddled around her looking like he was ready to go to sleep again. The cat scooted herself close to his head and began to lovingly lick him above his eye as a thank you. Her loving gesture progressed all the way to his ear where the fresh bullet wound was. Seeing her friend injured she unflinchingly began to clean his wound with her tongue, getting the dried blood to go away and leave behind his brown skin covered with some fur.

"See, Hane Kuriboh likes her. Why are you so against keeping the cat?" Johan pointed out the loving sight to prove his point. The two had walked in when the heard a 'thump' come from inside. It was Hane Kuriboh falling down. Judai hadn't intervened to help his friend knowing he couldn't spoil the dog when the outside world was a fierce survival contest, but he still felt a pang of concern deep down.

"It's another mouth to feed, and it's a kitten." Judai replied stubbornly, crossing his arms. The rowdiness and extreme playfulness of a kitten would only bring more harm than good.

"Please~? If its food, then I will feed her some of mine." Johan objected, trying to show Judai some different solutions so his opinion would change.

"No, because there is barely enough food for you." Judai said still positive of his decision.

"I can get her food." Johan shyly suggested, not really sure of his own abilities.

"Ha! Yeah sure." Judai had a little laugh to him self at the thought of Johan bargaining for some food.

"What do I have to do to make you let her stay?" Johan practically whined. The blunette was getting a little more worked up then he should allow him self, he was getting too desperate.

"…" "Judai?" Johan asked again, implying the first unanswered question that was still in the air.

The brunette half-heartedly glared back saying, "no" in a flat monotone.

Johan bit down on his lip, "_Ruby is still hurt on her hind foot and like Judai said she's a kitten… what if something happens when I let her go…"_ Johan was thinking the worst. Judai had already let Johan spend time with the new kitten, which was making the separation harder for the blunette.

"Please?" Johan asked one more time with a hint of sorrow and desperation in his voice. Judai was still saying the same thing, 'no'. Johan didn't really know what to do; it was like when his mom would always refuse to let Johan keep any pets when he was a kid.

Johan began to get on his knees, lowering his body to perform a bow. It was common in his country when people asked for forgiveness or an extremely large favor.

Judai on the other hand was extremely started nearly jumping back and away from Johan.

"Please?" Johan begged. He knew he was being selfish, but he wanted to take care of Ruby, to be responsible for her life. He wanted the chance to prove him self to Judai as well.

"J-johan, stop, okay?" Judai told him, still in a shock form the younger one's action.

"Please?" Johan asked again in the same tone.

"Johan, stop." Judai order with a little more bite in the way he said it.

"Please!" — "Stop."

"Please!" — "Stop!"

"Please!" Johan was getting even more desperate with each time he uttered the word.

"Stop!" Judai ordered once again. Both were yelling it back and forth. Johan never saw it but Judai was starting to pale and his breath were getting shorter causing his cheeks to turn a light shade of red.

"Pl—"

"JOHAN, STOP!" Judai cried out. The blunette looked up at the brunette and saw the older teen was horrified, eyes wide in shock and fear. His breath coming out quick and strangled from all the yelling and by the way his chest was closing up from anxiety. The brunette covered his mouth and stomach shutting his eyes as if he were about to throw up from a nauseating sickness. Judai turned around; he wasn't able to see Johan like that anymore.

"I'm not the type of person who you should be bowing to… … … I don't deserve it." Judai choked out, still trying to calm him self from the previous sight.

"_I'm not like him, I'm not like him, I'm not like him! … I won't become like that…" _Judai repeated in his mind over and over again. The 'him' he was referring to was someone who plagued Judai's childhood and past, the one person he never wanted to even think of again.

The brunette grit his teeth to stop him self from crying in front of Johan. He lowered him self to the ground balancing on his bent legs in a frog-like position.

Johan was hesitant to rush to his side knowing that Judai was very prideful. The blunette just stood up and waited for the correct moment to speak. He saw the heavy breaths his savior was taking and saw that his hands never left his mouth and stomach.

"J-judai?" Johan whispered after giving the brunette some time. The brunette released his hands and slowly brought him self-back up into a standing position. Judai rubbed his eyes in large circles easing him self even more, slowly turning back into his composed self.

After Judai was back to him self he went outside for a moment, leaving Johan inside with Hane Kuriboh and Ruby.

The outside wind was doing wonders for his nerves. He let the crisp wind blow his bangs all over the place not caring if his vision was obscured. He took in many long breaths, inhaling and exhaling the fresh air. After about five minutes he was still brooding over the whole back-to-the-past moment and turned to one of his old habits, smoking.

He quit habitually smoking awhile ago knowing full well the effects of smoking but he never let go of his box of batches and box of Tuscon cigarettes. He liked their harsh taste and they would always sober him up when he got like this. His matchbox was always full for other fire uses but his pack of smokes was down to four.

The first inhale he took was so nostalgic, considering he hadn't smoked in about four months. He slowly let the gray smoke spew from his half parted lips letting it blow away in the wild wind.

"Dumb ass… letting yourself get all worked up like that…" Judai mumbled to him self as he inhaled once again. The brunette closed his eyes allowing more of his pent of nerves to go away, but they weren't escaping him as fast as they normally would.

The brunette recalled the last time he let him self-go to ease the pain of when Hane Kuriboh first lost his leg. He had holed him self up in his house drinking his fear, his sorrow and guilt away. He hadn't known how long it had been before Haou literally dragged him from the house and gave him a good beating to bring him to his senses. It had been Jehu who took care of his faithful companion. He had to amputate whatever was left of the dog's leg for fear of infection but Hane Kuriboh was slowly getting his sense of balance back. It was also about that time that Haou paid off every single man who sold alcohol to keep it away from Judai.

"Ha ha, bastard…" Judai smiled to him self at the memory.

… … "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Judai heard Johan scream practically in his ear. The brunette lazily rolled his head to see Johan trotting towards him. The blunette swiftly batted the cigarette from the older teen's hand and scolded, "SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU!" Johan stomped on the still lit cigarette making sure the bud was in pieces so Judai couldn't pick it up and try again.

"Hey, I don't have that many left~!" Judai whined, still in his bog from the earlier events.

"You have more!" Johan shrieked with his mouth jaw dropped.

"Duh. You're too innocent." Judai slumped over wanting to retrieve his cigarette but only found Johan's foot still on it. He brought him self back upright and saw Johan's hand extended saying, "Give me them."

"Oh you want one?" Judai joked.

"N-NO!" Johan yelled, flushing red at the thought of a teenager smoking, more so him smoking.

Judai playfully smirked but handed over his stash none-the-less. Johan snatched the box and buried them in his jacket. He lifted his foot from the pile of dust, which was once Judai's half finished Tuscon.

"Am I gonna get them back any time soon?" Judai did a fake pouty look seeing if Johan would react like he did before.

"No, I would have taken your gun too but now I kind of know its important so…" Johan trailed off. He saw Judai start to smirk, which was clear he had an idea.

"Lets go inside." Judai marched in the house and once enough inside he unhooked his Glock handgun and began checking the ammo.

"Oh God! No- I'm sorry! I'll give you back—"

"Relax, I'm not gonna kill your god damn cat! Jeez I'm not that evil." Judai grumbled. He dangled the magazine in front of Johan and dropped it to the floor. He aimed his gun to the ceiling and shot, but nothing but the click sound came out.

"It's empty." Judai confirmed.

"Then what—" Johan was about to ask.

Judai smirked saying, "You have five minutes to take this gun from me. If you can do that then the cat can stay, if not then I'll put it back… Deal?" He stuck out his hand for a temporary contract.

"Deal." Johan replied, taking Judai's hand. They shook once and stepped away from each other. _"Okay, don't screw this up… you can do this…" _Johan mentally prepared him self.

Judai looked down at his cracked analog wrist watch and said, "Alright bring it on, Jo—" The blunette had already grabbed for the dangling gun but he missed big time when Judai easily saw his move coming and dodged it with ease.

"Nice try." Judai nearly laughed. The brunette teased Johan once again with the gun by dangling it in front of him. The younger teen made another lunge for the item but poorly missed once again. He swiftly caught himself and made another three consecutive attempts to reach for the Glock all resulting in failure and him ending up face down on the floor.

"That looked like it hurt." Judai laughed. He didn't even realize but from the time Johan yelled at him for smoking he had completely forgotten about his freak out.

Johan grabbed the brunette's foot in an attempt to trip him. "Going for cheap shots now, are you?" Judai mused. The brunette tucked his handgun in the lip of his shorts behind his back and teased, "Look no hands." Judai gracefully slipped his foot out of Johan's clutches and danced away from him.

The two were at it for three more minutes with just about one more minute left.

"One more minute~" Judai sang n a mocking way. Johan charged in again. Judai didn't feel like running anymore so he grabbed both of Johan's arms and held him about a foot away from him. Johan quickly wrapped his leg around Judai's in an attempt to trip him, and this time it worked, although Judai was the one ontop. Judai had Johan pinned down with his hands beside his head and Judai's gun still in the back lip of his pants. The blunette was a little tired and was quietly panting trying to formulate a plan before his last minute was up.

"Give it up, you're almost out of time." Judai suggested.

Johan instantly thought of one of his old plans and took action. He started to shake and let tears bubble up in the rims of his eyes. He blushed a deep red with his head jerking to the side. The blunette whispered some incoherent words then bite down on his lip.

Judai bent down closer to hear what he was saying but suddenly Johan reached up and around Judai's head and brought the brunette down in for a kiss.

The older teen went into slight shock enough for his grip to loosen and Johan to free his hands ending the kiss. He reached around Judai and grabbed the gun. As Johan started to lean back down he whispered, "I win." In Judai's ear.

As the blunette was back on the ground he smirked, but he was still red faced from embarrassment. Judai on the other hand was completely unable to hide his embarrassment and quickly climbed off of Johan.

"Jesus Johan, where did you learn that trick." Judai laughed trying to cover up the awkward atmosphere.

"Freshman year of high school. Being pinned up against the wall more than a few times was enough practice for that trick." Johan awkwardly laughed as well, but it was the truth.

"What's the matter? Too weak to keep your girlfriend under control?" Judai joked.

"Ah ha ha… um, no." Johan nervously admitted.

There was a very long silence that filled the room. Neither knew how to respond, they were both flushed red and not making eye contact.

"Um, well… I'm …gay." Johan admitted without looking at Judai for his reaction. Truthfully, the blunette was scared he would be hated for it.

Judai still wasn't talking.

"So… being one of the only open gays in the school wasn't so great… ah ha ha…" Johan nervously laughed some more when their was still no reaction. He was panicking, scared, anxious…

"D-do you think I'm disgusting?..." Johan nearly cried. He looked down at the ground and clamped his hand tighter around the gun trying to fight back the tears he was about to spill.

"_He thinks I'm disgusting, he hates me! Why isn't he saying anything! He gonna kick me out and I'm not going to be able to see him and—"_

"Why would I think that?" Judai said.

?!

"Well you're not saying anything and—" Johan anxiously fidgeted when Judai said those relieving words.

"Johan, listen… if you like guys, then you like guys that doesn't make you any different then the Johan I know now… Frankly gender doesn't even matter as long as you love that person…"

Johan was relieved but also surprised how great and thoughtful an answer Judai produced. The blunette blushed from his friend's understanding and said, "Thanks."

No one had ever really aid anything nice to Johan about his choice in people… so the smile on his face couldn't be suppressed right now.

"I've dated- well I wouldn't say dated but I've been with a few guys before." Judai blushed an intense red, but was too embarrassed to look at the younger teen. From his reaction it was obvious Judai only meant 'one guy'. And probably the only person he ever went out with.

"Were you close?" Johan asked bashfully, finally finding the confidence to look Judai in the eye and have a conversation.

"Well I guess back then we were…" Judai smiled, a loving look crept up on his face as he blushed a light pink.

"_Oh my god Judai smiled! That that that kind of smile when you like someone and… Who was it!?" _Johan mentally screamed in his head.

"But that doesn't give you the ok to kiss me like that again got it!" Judai was back to his old self, his cold hearted disposition and snapped attitude.

"S-sorry…" Johan blushed again remembering that he had actually k-k-kissed J-judai! The blunette gaped at the brunette and steam was literally coming off of him from how red he got from the thought.

"Y-you get to keep your cat now be happy!" Judai called out as he almost ran for the door. "I'm getting some fresh air!" *** slam! ***

Once the older teen was outside, he ran around away from the door incase Johan would chase after him poking for more answers from his past relationship.

When he found a safe enough distance he leaned up against the wall of his house and sank down. His hand was covering his mouth still shocked from Johan's kiss.

He took a deep breath to try and calm himself. He slowly felt his lips, softly fingering the place where Johan's lips were and smiled timidly with the same look he had before…

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Kyaaaaa! Nice ending right ^^**

**Well there were some ups and down with some fluff and real life drama sooooo yay, believable fluff!**

**School is starting : **

**BOOOOO~! But I will do my best to update as much as I can.**

**I have a really great idea for maybe a 6 chapter story for winter break so yay ^^!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Ok so the winter break thing didn't work but I do have part of that other story I was talking about… :D**

**I had this chapter and several other drafts of it written and now I have chosen the path I want them to come! Finally.**

**Here is a brief summary of that little 6-chapter thing I was talking about…**

**Hapless**

**AU – Judai is given a new assignment to research the case of a rape victim while escorting her to therapy classes hosted by Mr. Johan Anderson, one of the best traumatic therapists around. When the two meet for the first time things go bad as Judai's mouth accidently offends Johan, but as time goes on and the two are forced to keep meeting and Johan begins to warm back up to Judai. Eventually Judai begins to feel more for the therapist but Johan is still distant to his feelings.**

**With Johan's walls finally coming down and Judai nearing the end of his case will things end well for the both or will something or someone interrupt?**

**(There are still some character things I need to develop but its almost solid)**

… **:D let me know if I should work on something like this or not~!**

**Warning: M rating because of words/half lemon in the middle.**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Oroman Wars 

Chapter 8 - Moments Before

Johan's sleep deprived eyes cracked open for tenth time in the past hour. His rigid body shifted against the dirt floor and he couldn't help but stifle a painful groan as he did so. The blunette attempted to fall into sleep again but with little success as his mind was still bogged from last night's events.

After the unexpected heart to heart him and Judai experienced last night… well it left them in somewhat of an awkward situation. With Johan kissing Judai and revealing he is gay and finding out Judai had a past boyfriend Johan's mind was the farthest thing from tired. That and also Ruby mewling for hours wanting to play, eventually resorting to stepping on Johan to get him up and active. However, Ruby's actions only angered the brunette causing him to scold Johan for the next ten minutes about rules for the cat to follow.

"_How has Judai managed to sleep like this?"_ Johan thought as he looked over and saw Judai's heavy rhythmic breathing. Johan yawned, rubbing the bags from his eyes. He turned back over and saw Hane Kuriboh and Ruby snuggled together peacefully snoozing.

"_Has everyone but me gotten sleep!?" _Johan mentally screamed in frustration. He buried his head further into his elbow (pillow) trying once again to close his eyes and attain the same rested state as everyone else. Johan groaned when he knew that sleep was unattainable beyond this point. He stayed awake too long gazing at all the others sleeping.

"_I guess I could just lay down… that counts as some sort of resting…" _Johan sighed as he stretched himself out across the box only half of his body fit on as his eyes rested on Judai's sleeping form. The brunette had rolled over on his box and was currently facing the blunette.

Johan had held Judai in high respects as his savior and with the events of last night his previous feeling of admiration and gratitude morphed to something a little more.

"_I think I like him…" _Johan thought, his face lighting up in happiness through tired eyes. The blunette glanced over at the brunette with a soft smile.

Judai had buried his face in his arm to use as a substitute for a pillow. His chaotic sleep movements had disrupted his blanket, now balled at his feet, and his shirt, which lifted just above his naval. Johan gazed at the sight before him as it reminded him of another person who had a similar sleeping habit; Yusei.

The blunette blushed, not realizing how long he had gazed at the brunette and tried to avert his eyes elsewhere.

In the past sleepovers Johan had with Yusei their sleeping situation would always end something like the situation the blunette was in now. Not only would the ravenette's nightshirt ride up his chest but he was also a touchy-feely sleeper who loved to hug anyone he was close to (Johan). Frankly it was both a torture and pleasure for Johan.

With all the memories swimming around in his head a question of 'Where is Yusei?' popped up causing Johan's brows to furrow with worry. Fresh tears pricked at his eyes when fate graced him with the cruel memory of his last moment with Yusei. The way his city was up in flames, the begging he heard from his crush not to leave and the way the ravenette torturously wiped his lips after Johan's sweet goodbye kiss. It all sent Johan's heart into a spiraling wind of confusion.

"_I don't know what I feel anymore…"_

It felt like it was only yesterday when he had that burst of optimism ready to change for the better… Only yesterday he was worried about the way he would look every time Yusei walked by him in school. Where had the time all gone? Why did it turn out like this?

Johan's eyes held tears but they would not fall. He kept thinking of the people he knew; Rally, Jack, Asuka… his last moments with them were-

"You okay?"

Johan quickly turned his head away from Judai knowing he was awake and had probably been staring at him for the past few moments.

"Uh, just the dust from this stupid floor. Its irritating my eyes." Johan lied.

"Hey, don't be mean to my floor." Judai grumbled in a joking manor. He gave him an exaggerated pout and stuck his tongue out at him.

"I wonder who lets it get this dirty?" Johan glanced back, mocking Judai by sticking his tongue back at him.

"I blame Hane Kuriboh. Always tracking dirt in this house." Judai smiled as he brushed some dirt across the floor into a small pile. He propped himself up on his elbows and asked, "All jokes aside… you good?"

The blunette gave Judai a look of confusion. He wanted to say 'what are you talking about?' but that would probably only delay Judai in getting his answer.

"I'm—" Johan held his breath feeling his voice cracking but quickly let it out in an elongated sigh. He laid his head down across one of his folded arms and shut his eyes giving his mind a chance to breath from the ongoing suffocation of his depressed thoughts.

"_Johan…"_ Judai felt sympathetic to what the kid was going through. He was even surprised that an emotional breakdown hadn't come earlier.

"Umm, do you need to talk about it or something?" Judai offered a bit unsure of what Johan actually needed right now.

"… … It's kind of stupid."

"Johan, it wouldn't be stupid if it makes you this upset." Judai countered giving the blunette an impatient look. Johan's heart fluttered just a bit knowing that Judai cared this much for him, but when the blunette saw Judai's face out of the corner of his eye he gave in knowing Judai had a point.

"Umm, well… I was just thinking about my city and when it was attacked… and some people I left behind… new ones I met…" Johan blushed at his last comment.

"Some more important than others?" Judai asked.

Johan shied away once again finding his hiding place in his elbow, his heart still burdened by those thoughts that brought back depressed feelings.

"Its best to let things like this out cause it sounds more involved than what you're saying." Judai sat up criss-crossed stretching out his upper body and arms. The brunette took just a bit longer than necessary hoping his feigned disinterest would get the kid to answer, but with no luck. He finished stretching and slumped forward still waiting for Johan to start talking.

…

…

… … …

"Speak!" Judai yelled in frustration.

"Why do I have to speak?! You don't know how personal this is to me! And I won't just something like this to an Alran, one who can so easily attack our city and DESTROY EVERYTHING!" Johan barked back finally letting go of some pent up emotions, but regrettably at the wrong person. He immediately regretted it. Judai gave him a grim look and shifted away from the blunette acting as though it wasn't the first time he'd heard something like this.

"… Judai I'm… I'm sorry I said that…" Johan nearly whispered. "I didn't mean it like tha—"

"Why the fuck do you apologize all the time?" Judai yelled. He turned back to Johan, agitation written on his face from the harsh words Johan thrashed him with.

Johan bit back a whimper and trying again, "Judai, I didn't mean to say it to you like tha— I shouldn't have even said that to you…I'm…I'm sorr—"

"Why do you do that?!" Judai raised his voice.

"Do what—"

"You always talk back! Come back afterwards and say 'I'm sorry' like some weak little girl."

"I was just saying sorry for what I said. What am I supposed to just submit to you, bow to you like a king or am I—" Johan stopped his retort when Judai jerked his body up and stomped away from their argument. Johan sat up promptly after and walked after Judai, who was already shoving on his jacket to leave the house.

"What did I say?" Johan asked trying to make his voice more calm and apologetic instead of quick tempered. He stepped in front of Judai who merely scowled in return.

"Move." Judai said as he brushed past the blunette, knocking him off his feet as he strode by. Judai was a good twenty feet from the house when Johan called out, "WELL SORRY!" just to piss him off.

"Ha ha ha…" Judai chuckled under his breath. "TALKING LIKE THIS TO THE ONE WHO SAVED YOUR ASS! GOD DAMNIT, JUST GO FIND YOUR OWN SHELTER AND SEE IF YOU CAN LIVE TWICE AS LONG AS I'VE KEPT YOU ALIVE YOU WORTHLESS ORO! DON'T DIE ON YOUR WAY BACK TO OROMAN, YOU DUMB PUSSY!" Judai yelled back learning the severity of his words once he saw the look on Johan's face. Hurt. He never wanted Johan to think of those pained thoughts, but it just kind of slipped out in his anger. He felt like an ass for hurting Johan. He really just wanted to keep him safe from the corrupt Alroh… but he never turned back to say that.

"I'm going to Haou's!" Judai yelled without turning around, just giving a slight hand wave at the still silent blunette.

Back at the threshold of Judai's house Johan trembled from the harsh yet true words and hid the tears falling from his eyes with his forearm.

"_How could he say something so— …I'm an idiot for liking him…but I…"_

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Haou! When are they coming to pick us up?" Jehu called from upstairs. The two had closed Haou's shop a few hours earlier to start packing in preparation for their long absence.

"I dunno, maybe two hours?" Haou called back. "Are you done with the upstairs yet?" The brunette was finishing up his last box, packing in some leftover silverware and cups still collecting dust from their hidden spots in the cabinet.

"Already done." Jehu smirked. He trotted down the steps and placed a large box at the bottom of the steps, finishing his pile of near ten boxes.

"Cheater. I bet you didn't even fold the clothes." Haou scoffed as his packing pace subtly increased. He moved away from the cardboard box to grab a box of knives on the wooden counter when Jehu came up and snagged him by the waist.

"You're too slow." Jehu breathed against Haou's ear. His hands, already tugging at the edges of the brunette's shirt, were eager to touch his body. His tongue lazily dragging itself across Haou's neck, stopping occasionally to suck on one of his sensitive spots.

"I'm almost done. Keep it in your pants for a little longer." Haou said, rolling his eyes ignoring the hot wave of pleasure coming from his gut. Jehu let go and brought his arms across his chest waiting patiently for Haou to finish. The brunette sighed after Jehu let him go but he quickly went to finish collecting the last of their possessions to pack away.

Jehu chose a close beam to lean against as he watched his lover make his rounds around their emptied shop. Their awfully colored walls faded from years of dust and dry seasons traced square lines from old signs recently taken down. Grubby windows collecting spiders in their crevices caused the dark blunette to cringe his nose.

"This place looks like shit when you stare at it long enough." Jehu laughed as his amber eyes moved form the windows to checking out the cracks in their ceiling.

"As if we have time to fix it." Haou replied readjusting the box in his grasp. The box he carried was awkwardly large for a male of his size to carry but his strength made up for it. He hastily made his way past Jehu to the pile of boxes, but stopped when he felt a familiar teasing smack on his ass. The brunette slowly turned around to glare at Jehu with his piercing golden eyes giving him a warning of 'lay off'.

Jehu held up his hands in fake surrender chuckling, "I was just playing." Haou glared a moment longer before continuing to put the box away. He bent down to place it on the floor and once he got back up Jehu had him once again in his grasp. His muscular body already melding across Haou's smaller one searching out the brunette's lips for a kiss.

"Impatient are we?" Haou whispered before delving into Jehu's kiss. It was rough yet consensual as Jehu quickly took dominance leaving Haou weak to the dark blunette. Jehu pushed the smaller male back against the wall of boxes combing his hands through his wild chocolate hair.

"You know we won't be able to fuck while we're at work." Jehu whispered back as he broke the kiss and started to suck on Haou's neck. His tongue rolled over a fading hickey eager to renew its color.

"N-nowhere… visible." Haou barely told him between shaky breaths.

"And if I do?" Jehu smirked into his lover neck as he licked under his jaw line. Haou instantly jerked forward and shoved Jehu away from him. He fixed his shirt and hair back, walking away from the box wall he had been pinned to.

"You know what will happen, dumbass." Shot back the brunette. He sat down at the edge of their old table, being one of their last pieces of furniture not stowed away in a closet or room.

"You know what will happen…" Haou repeated again lowering his head closer to his lap. Jehu sighed in defeat and made his way to comfort his lover.

"You know I wouldn't do that to you… to us… I was just teasing. Come on Haou." Jehu placed his hand around a resistant Haou who kept scooting away from his touch. But in the end Jehu successfully sat on the table next to the brunette and had his arm wrapped around his waist.

"Don't joke with that, idiot. It's a total turn off." Haou growled still pissed about the joke. Jehu, in return, slid off the table and onto the floor kneeling in front of Haou.

"Yes master." Jehu smirked as he kissed Haou's hand, bowing just to take it a little farther. The brunette narrowed his eyes, "We're not at work yet" but never the less he brought the dark blunette closer to kiss him. Jehu kept the lower ground letting Haou be on top for a change keeping their kiss at a sweeter level, brushing their tongues against one another soothingly. Jehu would hum in fulfillment occasionally after he'd suck on Haou tongue distracting the brunette enough so Jehu could gain some height over him. Eventually the brunette was under Jehu panting from the overly long kiss that Jehu wouldn't let him stop.

Jehu was equally out of breath as he looked down upon Haou taking in the sight of his slightly red face and heaving chest. The dark blunette lowered his body just above Haou's and started another kiss. His lips melding onto Haou's biting and licking them till Haou opened his mouth, ready to make out. The brunette's hand ducked under the hem of Jehu's shirt balling it at the top of his toned frame.

"Mmmah—mmnn. AHH!" Haou moaned between their lip exchange as Jehu began to rub his clothed erection against Haou's driving the brunette crazy. Fingers raked down the blunette's back as Haou fought back a cry of ecstasy.

"Haou…" Jehu whispered lustfully into the shell of the brunette's ear before taking it between his teeth and biting.

"Aah!" Haou's gasped, back arching off the table and grinding up into Jehu's hardening cock. Jehu grunted at the action giving Haou another quick yet sloppy kiss before he backed off to rid their bodies of their shirts. He allowed Haou to pull his over his head while he torturously slid off Haou's.

"So eager, you want to do it on your store table~?" Jehu purred as he began to message one of Haou's thighs, subtly moving down till he could fondle his ass.

"Not like we haven't fucked here before." Haou groaned back feebly attempting to pull Jehu down for another kiss. The dark blunette undid the brown belt around the brunette's pants and slowly began to tug at the zipper.

"Fucking tease." Haou whispered harshly before biting back another moan of pleasure when the blunette began to teeth him through his boxers slowly turning his biting to sucking.

"Aaah! Mmmnaah… Jehu!" Haou cried threading his fingers through Jehu's dark teal hair. The larger male looked up, his amber eyes devouring the sight of his flustered lover before him.

Deciding to be a tease for a little longer he left his cock alone and went to kiss him again. Hungrily searching for his lover's attention again Haou immediately opened his mouth for Jehu to enter. The dark blunette let the dominating sensation get to his head and he roughly pinned down Haou's tiny hands above his head taking control of the kiss again. Overwhelmed, Haou moaned into the kiss completely at the mercy of Jehu's pleasurable touch.

Jehu withdrew from Haou's swollen lips saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth. His tongue slid over his lips to take care of it while gently wiping away the string from Haou's open mouth with his thumb. With his tongue still hanging from his mouth, he lowered himself down to tease Haou's pert nipples.

His tongue swirled around and over his bud biting occasionally changed to sucking that elicited mewls from the brunette. Jehu took both the brunette's hands into one of his as he used his now free hand to rub and tease the other bud.

"Nnn aah! Enough… f-foreplay, J-Jehu…" Haou panted as he tried to wiggle his hands free and hold onto his lover. "I'm already…" Jehu released Haou's hands once he felt his feeble struggling and gazed down at Haou's drooling, hardened cock tenting his wet boxers.

"You're already this hard." Jehu purred as he pressed his clothed erection once again over Haou's weeping one. The brunette gasped from pleasure and subconsciously clamed his legs onto Jehu's back to hold him close.

"P-please… ahh!" Haou begged as Jehu kept rocking into him. "I want you—nngh…"

Jehu, satisfied with his lover's pleas, stopped his teasing and unbuckled his own pants letting his hard on out. With the released pressure, Jehu let out a grunted sigh as his cock was finally free from his constraining pants.

"Looks like I'm not the only one." Haou playfully smirked as he saw Jehu roll his eyes. The dark blunette hovered back over the brunette planting a chaste kiss before dipping his fingers into the hem of Haou's boxers.

As his hands brought the article of clothing down he made sure to brush up against the brunette's inner thigh and take extra time when he got down to his shins.

"I'm gonna go limp if you take any longer." Haou threatened, shortly after feeling his boxers slide off and onto the ground. Jehu slinked back to his spot hovering over the brunette and gave his lover another sensual kiss before pumping his member in a slow rhythm. Pre cum began to flow over Jehu's hand, which he used for lube to slick around his fingers giving him more friction. The dark blunette moved his mouth slowly down Haou's chest leaving behind warm butterfly kisses. His free hand twisting Haou's nipple receiving loving moans in return till his bud turned a bright red.

Once Jehu's mouth reached his cock he slowly took in the head and began to bob over the base and back up softly grinding under his shaft with his teeth. His tongue swirled around the top as he came back up and began to lick his slit still leaking out pre cum.

"AAH! No…not-t there… nnnnaahh~" Haou yelped as Jehu took in his whole member and hummed to create a ecstatic vibration. Haou's hips jerked up to meet with Jehu's bobbing mouth, desperate for his wet cavern to engulf him.

Humming and licking turned into sucking, bringing Haou closer to the edge as he clawed and gripped Jehu's hair legs hiking up higher each time Jehu carried out a deep-throated suck. With all the pleasure being given to Haou he didn't even notice when Jehu's slicked fingers slipped into his entrance. He swirled his two fingers around gently thrusting in and out subtly beginning to scissor his fingers in preparation for his lover till he heard a surprised gasp.

His mouth left his lover's erection, choosing to let him cum when Jehu was inside him and went back to claim Haou's lips, muffling the protesting noises when his third finger entered him.

A surge of pleasure pulsed through Jehu and he shivered in ecstasy when he felt Haou take hold of his cock, pumping it as best he could from the angle. The dark blunette had to break his kiss to let out a groan of pleasure when the other male's hand started and elating message with his balls.

"Jesus Haou… nngh—damn." Jehu grit his teeth when his lover gave them a tight squeeze before drifting up to pumping his member. The dark blunette basked in the hand job for a minute more before he withdrew from Haou's attention and began to slick his own cock with spit and pre cum prepping himself so it wouldn't be as hard on Haou to walk when they left in the next hour or so.

Once fully lubed, Jehu hoisted Haou's legs up next to his waist and spread them wide so he could see his lover's everything. The brunette could already feel Jehu's intimidating gaze eating him up and hesitantly averted his gaze with a slight blush tainting his cheeks.

"What's to be embarrassed about, I've already seen you many times before this." Jehu hummed as he began to enter Haou. His lust deluded amber eyes still fixated on Haou's exotic face as he was entered caused the brunette to become more aroused. His body shoved down into the table as Jehu's thick member penetrated into his entrance. Jehu once again captured his lips as he waited for his lover to adjust. The dark blunette's tongue slid itself in as Haou welcomed him with an open mouth meeting his tongue with his own. The brunette took control of the kiss lacing one of his hands into Jehu's mane and the other grabbing the back of the small wooden table.

"I'm f-fine no-ow, go… haa… fuck me." Haou growled into his lover's ear spurring Jehu into a heated thrust. In and out, in and out he kept driving into Haou increasing his pace each time Haou called his name. Jehu kept up his fast thrusting pace, ramming the insides of Haou, smirking at the lewd sounds he caused to come from his mouth.

"Fuck… so tight." Jehu breathed as he rammed again into the brunette. He gripped the smaller male's legs at his sides still widely spread for easier access. The hand still clutching to Jehu's hair sought more to hold as it moved to Jehu's shoulder. The other hand trying to hold his body still on the table gave in as well and joined the other on Jehu's shoulder in haste.

"Aah Jehu! Haa haa. F-faster. Aah!" The brunette clung tighter to the man above him who had accelerated his pace changing his angle to find Haou's prostate, craving to make his Haou scream even louder.

The brunette's body began to bounce on the table, its legs rattling with every movement the two made threatening the old structure to collapse any second.

"H-Haou."

"Jehu… aah!"

Both were reaching their climax. The grunts and moans from both of them only fueled the other's ecstasy.

"K-kiss me aah!" Haou whimpered for more beneath the larger male who kept pounding relentlessly beneath him. The blunette heard his lover's pleas. He pushed Haou down onto the table hands locking him down on both sides taking his lover's lips onto his own. Jehu's hand's sought out the brunette's legs to shift them over his shoulders to get a better angle, a deeper one to drive his Haou over the edge.

"AAH! C-coming! J-Jehu! Nnaahh~!" Jehu gripped the brunette's ass and gave it a few teasing squeezes and smacks before thrusting himself in deeper sending Haou to his climax in a howling cry.

Haou's cum splattered across his stomach and he fell limp from exhaustion after his climax. The brunette's spasming insides clenched down and around Jehu's cock giving him the tightness he needed to reach his climax after a few more harsh thrusts. Jehu's warm cum flooded Haou's insides making him convulse in pleasure once more from the heated sensation.

Jehu dipped his head down in front of Haou's. Sweat clung to both of their foreheads, both panting breathlessly from the sensual rush. The dark blunette slowly removed his cock disturbing the settled cum inside Haou making the brunette writhe in pleasure as it seeped from his stretched hole.

Jehu attempted to rest on the table with Haou but it wasn't big enough for both of them despite Haou's smaller stature. His large hands lifted his tired brunette from the table and gently laid him atop his chest when he rested on the table's hard surface.

"This table can't be good for you back." Jehu chuckled as he adjusted more to try and find a comfy place on the hard wood surface.

"No, its not. I can already feel the numbness in by back side." Haou sighed weakly.

Both fell into a peaceful silence that continued for a few minutes. Haou found comfort in the warm nook of Jehu's neck while his lover would trace circles on his body. Haou could hear Jehu's heartbeat evening out along with his own till mused the question, "Want to do it again?"

Jehu's heartbeat raced once more as he lifted Haou up onto his waist to straddle his hips. The brunette bent over licking designs across Jehu's sweat-slick body when a rap at the door sent the two flying off the table and onto the floor.

Haou immediately sprang to his feet, searching for the closest pair of pants. He completely forgot about his boxers and even put Jehu's shirt on.

"Dude that's mine." Jehu hissed as he saw Haou already dressed but with some of his clothes on. "You're shirt wont fit me." He held it up in example across his chest.

"Go get some out of the box and change upstairs." Haou whispered back. He began to slick his hair back to its original state also wiping his brow a few times to get the sweat off.

The rapping came again and this time louder.

"Coming!" Haou called a little too cheerful for the deathly expression plastered on his face.

"Again already?" Jehu whispered as if was calling to the person as well, a smirk forming on his lips as he saw Haou already reacting to the joke.

"You ass! Go upstairs and change." Haou seethed, pointing to the steps. He watched with a scowl as Jehu lazily walked his naked ass up stairs twirling the clothes he picked out.

"We'll continue where we let off before Haou~chan." Jehu smirked as he blew an exaggerated fake kiss. Haou just glared at him not in the mood for his antics.

"Fine." Jehu said as he ran up the rest of the way.

The knocking came again louder.

"WE"RE CLOSED DUMBASS!" Haou yelled as he flung the door open, but wasn't ready for the unexpected blow that was dealt to his stomach.

Another man that almost made contact with Haou's face threw another punch but he dodged. The brunette ducked to the floor as another came running in to tackle him, but Haou blocked and countered by throwing his footing off balance and onto the ground beside him.

The brunette turned to finish the wounded male but was teamed up by two more men entering the shop. One of the assailants, with rusty blonde hair, pinned his arms behind his back and shoved him face first against the closest wall while the other husky male watched.

"Damn it!" Haou hollered and struggled but that only resulted in a powerful kick to the weak point on the back of his knee. The brunette collapsed on one side, falling sideways onto the floor allowing his attacker a chance to slam his face onto the floor.

Haou's vision fuzzed in and out for a moment and his body went limp from the force. His eyes still before regained their strength to move around the room and identify the faces; he even hacked up a cough a few times to bring his mind and lungs back to reality.

He struggled about half way up onto his hands and knees when the dirty blonde grabbed his hair and pulled him back to showcase him in front of the robust man. The two exchanged conversation but it was all incoherent static to Haou. His eyelids drooping till one of the men grabbed his chin and shook him.

"Is this the one from yesterday?"

"He was there but he wasn't involved. Where's the other guy?"

Haou gained enough sense of the situation and started to jerk away from the man's chin grab. He could feel him tightening his grip until everyone heard a man tumbling down the stairs. More grunting along with a shout were coming from upstairs.

Haou took it as an opportunity and ripped away from the grubby hand holding his chin. He bit down on the hand hard enough to bring blood to the surface. He thrust his head back and delivered a swift head butt to the blonde who was pinning his arms back. The dirty blonde tried to stop him but was easily avoided and instead fell to the floor with a fierce elbow to the back of his neck.

Haou was about to punch the dumbass he bit but his fist was stopped mid air by the other's large hand. The brunette didn't have time to break free till he was slammed into the wall behind him. His legs gave out and he slumped to the floor placing his hands out in front of his face to dodge any oncoming attacks.

The man he bit grabbed hold of his lithe foot, yanking him out and sprawling him onto the floor. He stepped on one of Haou's hands and sat on top his waist; he withdrew a knife and scraped it against his cheek, holding it firmly on his cheekbone.

The brunette glanced down at the knife and then glared up at his attacker pushing his luck as he pushed against the knife daring the man to try it.

"Where's the blue haired bitch from yesterday who attacked our group?" The man spat pushing the knife harder against Haou's pale skin.

"You mean the one who beat the shit out of you?" Haou grinned; although, his crude comment earned him a slap across his face. Except for grinding his teeth together for the briefest moment his face remained impassive.

"Bwahahahaha! There's some fight in you little shrimp!" The man chuckled in a dark tone, his eyes scanning up and down his prey. The man dared to press the knife harder, just enough before the skin broke, and caressed the side of Haou's cheek.

"So smooth." He crooned, letting his hand roam to more places on the brunette's body. The man's touch set fire to previously dulled after-sex sensations leaving Haou's face a red-hot mess with an increased heart rate. His attacker's finger's walked across his chest purposefully caressing his nipple when he passed it.

"_He knows a man's touch." _The man made a note of this with a playful smirk on his face.

"A body like this must be a good fuck." The man said, lust coating his gruff voice and clouding his eyes, distracting him enough so that he loosen his pressure on his knife. With a quick punch to the face Haou was able to free his trapped hand.

"Hey fat ass, get off of me." Haou ordered. He was rubbing his crushed fingers flexing them in and out to get back circulation to his digits. The man looked down in shock at the smirking male beneath him but soon was ripped off of the lithe boy and flung to the floor by another.

Jehu had dealt with the other goons easily, seeing that they were the same ones that he beat down on the other day, the ones who tried to hurt Johan.

"Don't touch him as you please." Jehu threatened as he bent back the man's arm in the opposite way it was meant to go. The tension between his bones was growing and just before Jehu tried to break it the man began to beg pitifully for him to stop.

"Please, pl—ack! I didn't know he was—" The man pleaded before…

"Jehu." Haou got up craning his neck and stretching his arms. "I order you to stop."

The dark blunette reluctantly released his chokehold on the man and bowed aside for Haou to step forward and take command. He approached the panting man before him, the one who dared to take a knife to him, even touch him in that way.

"If you back alley dumbasses have any sense you would do well to know who you're attacking. We're taking you into custody for assaulting military personnel." Haou stated, upright back, feet together and hands clasped behind his back.

"W-what military personnel?"

"My personal guard and Knight, Jehu and Major General Haou, division commander for his majesty's army." The man's eyes widened at this. Attacking the military was a severe crime in Alroh punishable by death because of his majesty's great need for his military.

"A squad is already on their way here. You will be dealt with accordingly when they arrive." Haou's refined voice spoke, sticking his nose in the air as he turned and gave a head nod for Jehu to finish.

"W-wait I didn't! No WAIT!" The man screamed.

…

Outside the door, after hearing everything that had just unfolded, was a very startled Judai breathing heavily against the shop's now closed door.

"_Haou… Jehu…"_

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**Done~ Shocking right! (although im pretty sure half of you already know whats going on)**

**I'm really sorry if I confuse military terms, I don't mean any offense if I use them incorrectly _**

**My expected half lemon turned into a full one so I hope it was good.**

**Another chapter should be up before the 8****th****!**


	9. Chapter 9

**I have had this written for a while… just needed to edit it.**

**I have no intention of dropping this story **

**Oh and the number before, like two chaps ago, a Russian Blue cat is a shiny grey color that comes off as having a blue tint.**

**Warning: This one will be T (language, mentions of blood)**

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Oroman Wars

Chapter 9 – Everything Falls

"_Haou… Jehu…" _Judai fell back against the door, feeling leaving his legs from shock. One of his hands drifted up and covered his gaping mouth. His breathing was too loud for his own comfort after he realized how much noise he made.Slow footsteps were heard approaching Judai's spot at the door. They weren't very heavy, yet with each sound it shot an agonizing wave of tension through Judai's heart.

"_Shit…"_ Judai inwardly berated himself trying his best to rise without bumping the door behind him or making much more noise than he had. Yet all was in vain as the door swung open, startling the brunette to trip forward onto the dirt road before him.

"I'm sorry…" He heard a familiar voice say. His body twisted around to the front as clumsy hands did their best to help him up. All he could hear was his heart beating out of his chest as he saw Haou, a cold glare masking his usual disposition.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before." Haou repeated. Judai was still breathless staring up at Haou from his place on the ground.

"Master…" Jehu whispered as he came up from behind Haou; he addressed him with his usual bow. Haou buried his head in his palms. Silent curses could be heard from the brunette as he messaged his closed eyes. When Haou's gaze once again met Judai's he cringed at the sight before him. His once best friend was his target and his lover was turned into a bowing dog before him. He was a knight after all. He didn't want to go back to work… back to the front lines…

How tragic his life is.

Jehu was an Oromanian who had fallen for him, an Alran General.

"_What an idiot… I'm an idiot for making him go through this…" _Haou thought as he beckoned Jehu to rise.

"Judai… They're coming…" Haou told him as he turned his back to his friend hiding the true feelings his face showed.

"They've only come to pick us up, but no doubt they will find your house and Johan… He still has his piercing in." Haou whispered the last bit of information.

Judai's breath caught in his throat when Haou mentioned Johan. His emotions were already a storm inside his heart. His throat tightened from fighting the tears of betrayal and his hands shaking from his body telling him to run. With the thought of Johan being taken away… His mind took him to thoughts of their fight this morning. Was the blunette even there anymore?

"GO!" Haou yelled as he turned to chase Judai. Judai jumped from his place on the ground. Where had his cool composure in fights gone? He just kept crawling back from Haou making feeble attempts to lift himself from the ground. Jehu turned his head away from the sight.

"Go!" Haou grabbed Judai by the collar of his shirt and threw him down. Judai stumbled to his feet and ran back the way he came; tears streaming down his face and the air finally returning to his lungs.

"YOU KNOW I WON'T BE ON YOUR SIDE ONCE THEY COME!" Haou shouted as he chased faster after his friend. After he had chased him down the rubble-lain street he stopped, emotions too caught up for him to breath normally anymore. He picked up a small piece of cement and feebly threw it at Judai, missing by a mile.

"Don't force me to fight against you…" Haou choked back on the raw emotion as he slumped to the streets floor. His mouth tasted of blood from how much he had been biting his cheek, "Not this time… Judai…" Haou harshly whispered as he brought himself back on his feet.

Jehu came up behind him. He reached out a hand to comfort him, but stopped when he remembered 'his place'. Their vacation was over now and work had begun. He bit down on his lip and straightened himself up before calling to Haou.

"Master, please come back. We must prepare for departure." Jehu reminded him, assuming the posture he was taught to address his Master.

The brunette turned around, his mask already where it needed to be for this job. His golden eyes red from crying yet cold and hard as he passed Jehu in an elegant stride going back to his shop. Haou couldn't help but mentally wince as he saw Jehu bow before him as he strode past.

"Come, Jehu."

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Judai's breath was haggard as he neared the town's limits. It had been some time since Judai had been on the run. The cold air had dried his throat to a scratchy brittle texture and even as he slowed down he could still feel the sting in his throat as he breathed.

As he came to a stop he bent over, hands on his knees to rest for a moment. He erupted into a fitful of coughs and choked sobs. Hopeful eyes glanced back but he didn't see Haou running after to help him, say he was sorry again, and affirm that their friendship was still existent.

Judai blinked back some tears, fisted his hair in frustration and screamed, "Danmit!" into the silent town's air. He kicked the dirt a few times trying to vent his feelings. Then he heard the sound of drums and the smell of smoke.

His mind and heart raced as it coming from the direction his house, where a small puff of smoke began rising.

"_Johan!" _Judai immediately broke into a sprint the second his mind could process the danger Johan was in.

"Shit!" He cursed as he picked up speed. His mind kept thinking of the things they would do to the poor kid if they caught him. Sent to a POW camp, taken to the main city to be executed, tortured for information, a slave to the many men in a battalion…

That house Judai made was never meant to be permanent, only a simple shelter from the weather. It wasn't made to withstand bullets and the force of trained military men and neither was Johan.

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Judai could hardly catch his breath as he stood cowering behind an outcropping less than one hundred yards away. He could hear the hollering of orders the commanding officer gave to his men.

His throat was ablaze with pain. He could feel his heart ache at the thought of Johan being taken back by the very men he was so desperate to escape in the first place. His mind screamed for him to stay put while his heart yearned for him to bolt into an all out sprint right to take on the men destroying his house.

Judai took another glance at the collapsed, half-burning house as it was now nothing more than a pile of trash. He fell back to the ground and a new thought blossomed in his mind that sent tears to his eyes.

"_What happened to Hane Kuriboh?" _The brunette's mind reeled from the thought of walking up there and finding his best bud dead… or worse. Then there was Ruby. That poor kitten's life could have ended with the simple shot of a bullet. The poor cat that wanted nothing more than some love and protection.

He gulped back some of his anxiety and began funneling his breathing through his nose to calm himself. His moment with Haou that morning had knocked him so far from reality that he had forgotten himself.

Once he had attained a more serene state of mind he stood up to check if the coast was clear. The men had moved past his location and were going in the direction the town was located. _To pick up Haou_, Judai thought briefly.

He backtracked; keeping his eyes on the retreating formation of soldiers and ran back to the remains of his house.

He couldn't help curse when he saw the jacket that he had just given to Johan. He brought it to his chest on impulse thinking how Johan looked when he first gave it to him.

Judai moved around some debris till he came across a spot on the floor that made him look away. He saw the faintest dribble of blood smudged in with the dry clay. It wasn't enough to kill him, but enough to make some part of him hurt.

Judai felt something touch his leg and he nearly fell back from shock. He instinctively reached for his Glock when he saw that it was Hane Kuriboh who had come up to make himself known to his owner.

"I almost shot you buddy." Judai sighed as he withdrew his gun. Hane Kuriboh began to whimper. The dog hobbled forward into Judai's embrace. The brunette smile down at the docile gesture and praised his good friend by stroking his head.

"_At least I still have someone…" _Judai thought as he stood back up.

"Where's R-ruby?" Judai's voice cracked when he asked Hane Kuriboh. The dog merely perked his ears.

"_Of course the dog doesn't know…" _More tears fell from his eyes when he thought of how Ruby was like Johan; both helpless, had chipped ears and both very adorably cute. Judai found the overwhelming sensation of crying take over.

"_They are definitely alike…" _Judai's tears began to flow from him. He brought his arm up over his eyes covering his face in front of his pal. He recalled the first night he found Johan. It was his pale body that had never experienced Alroh's sun and his ridiculously bright blue hair with enthralling emerald eyes. Passion, hope… Those eyes were the thing that made him turn back and save him.

That awkward silence between the two when he first woke up… Judai didn't know what to say to someone so naïve and pure. He grew up in Alroh for Christ's sake it was pretty interesting to see something other than hate and distrust in a person. The kid was beat so badly yet still fighting.

Judai's thoughts suddenly took him to the moment Johan kissed him.

He choked on his tears, but nonetheless smiled at the memory.

He was finally calming down reminiscing when he felt arms wrap around his neck. Adrenaline kicked in as he immediately smashed his head into the nose of his attacker. Swiftly he grabbed one of the arms wrapped around his neck and threw the assailant's body over his own… _blue hair?_

"J-judai?" Johan gasped for the air that had been knocked out of him. His nose bleeding from Judai's hit to his face after he had run up to hug him.

"Johan!" The brunette pulled the boy off the ground and hugged the life out of him, exhaling slowly into the crook of his neck trying not to cry in front of the already shivering boy.

"I thought they took you."

"I… I st-still can't breathe." He tried to suck in air again but he was still winded from Judai flipping him onto his back.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. Take some deep breaths." Judai removed Johan from him and brought his hands up and behind his head. He told Johan to sit up straight while he checked out his nose.

"It's not broken." Judai informed, although that was about the extent of what medical knowledge he knew (if something was broken or not.)

"So… happy…" Johan wheezed. He took a few more attempted deep breaths before finishing his sentence, "Can't cry…" then he smiled.

"R-ruby is… also…" Judai looked behind him and saw the little kitten keeping out of the sun by sitting under Hane Kuriboh.

"Don't worry. I won't flip her like I did with some idiot. Why don't you try calling my name next time?" He rolled his eyes at Johan who was beginning to breathe normally again.

"I did." He brought his hands back to his sides and then started crying. He clung to Judai once more still shaking and crying loudly into his shoulder.

Judai put his arms around Johan's back and held him. He could feel the tears prick at his eyes too, his lip quivering, as he held Johan.

"_He's alive. He's alive. He's alive. He's alive. He's alive. He's alive." _His mind kept saying it like a mantra till he himself started to cry.


End file.
